Haley Athens, Campus Carrier Online Editor

Like most people graduating soon, I am on the hunt for employment. I am constantly on LinkedIn and other professional networking websites and applications. As I’m rushing around desperately to find more experience in my field, I keep hearing the same insult over and over from the baby boomers: “Your generation is too lazy.” 

There can be truth to this opinion. If a person only looks at how many times we check Facebook a day and how many text messages we send instead of holding a face-to-face conversation, then yes, they are going to hold the stance that our generation lacks effort or care. I admit I do like keeping up with what my favorite author John Green has to say on Twitter, but this isn’t the sole factor baby boomers should be taking into effect when they make the assumption that our generation just wants to hide behind our phones and not work. I love my phone, but that does not mean in any way that I’m not making an effort to work hard and gain more experience. 

To learn more about journalism, I applied to graduate schools last fall and for some of the schools, there is a 10 percent acceptance rate. You know what this means? My résumé and personal statement have to impress the admissions board more than the thousands of others who applied. My résumé isn’t completely unimpressive, but it isn’t going to be near the best ones that they read and analyze. In some cases when I’ve applied for jobs, I am seen as under-qualified even with four jobs just in my undergraduate career. I am not boasting about my work experiences; I am actually discouraged by how much I wasn’t able to accomplish due to other obligations. I am constantly working, and sometimes even taking a breather by reading for leisure for an hour becomes impossible. 

With an average of a 17 hour course load each semester, it’s a little difficult to manage a few jobs and an internship so I can attain my dream job or graduate school, but that’s what it seems like I have to do. Our generation has to work hard to get a job one might not even want. I am not calling older generations the lazy ones; I am saying that there is a level of ignorance whenever they think about the millennial generation, people born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s. For some people to ignore the fact that our generation must have multiple experiences in our work field is losing sight of all the energy and focus we put into finding a job. 

I live with five other girls and there are some days where I don’t see them at all because of our hectic work schedules. This can be seen as a blessing and a curse. Fortunately, Berry has helped their students become this way. The opportunity to have a job and go to school at the same time helps students gain the knowledge and work ethic we need to advance into the “real” world. So as we, the millennials, juggle jobs and school, think twice about calling us lazy. Stereotyping our whole generation from only a couple of unmotivated students isn’t going to make your opinion of our apathy correct. So leave me in peace while I want to take an hour break from my exhausting schedule to watch the latest episode of “American Horror Story.”