As I age and things get harder to do physically, I wouldn’t trade the year I was born for a younger one. I can’t believe I haven’t blathered about Generation X on my blog before. I searched my archives and couldn’t see any posts on it. I’m sure on my older defunct blogs, I covered this topic before. People born between 1965 and 1980 are considered Generation X. I’m going to make a list of reasons why my generation is awesome. I was born in 1977 and define myself as part of Generation X.
1. Music. The progression of hip hop and other music was undeniable in the early 1990s. People listened to the radio all the time and then bought a cassette or CD. I was lucky to live in a household where being a music fan was appreciated and never discouraged.
2. Skateboarding. From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, skateboarding progressed into what it is today. Over the short couple of years from 1990 to 1994, every video release showcased a new trick or variation.
3. Freedom to roam. From my experience and not everyone’s, I feel I had freedoms growing up. After school or in summer, I could be outside skating or doing other stuff with the only rule to be back by dark or dinner time. When I got my license when I was 16, I remember coming back home late regularly.
Now I’ll talk about comparisons of Generation X and other generations. The clickbait on MSN and Yahoo states that fewer people are Generation X compared to Boomers or Millennials, and therefore get ignored. I think now is a messed-up time to grow up in, and the boomers went through the Vietnam era.
Generation X is the last to have grown up without cell phones, but they have adapted to current technology. There are drug use, suicide, mental health, poverty, and other problems for people my age. We could blame the pharmaceutical companies for pushing opioids to the mainstream, inadequate mental health services, and unhealthy popular culture trends.
One positive thing to end on. It’s difficult to see now with the conservative climate, but Generation X did a lot of groundwork with discussions of equality, gender, sexuality, anti-bullying, and accountability.
That’s it!
-M.C. Allison
P.S. Generation X has embraced the idea that age is just a number, and many live healthy, active lifestyles as they get older.
