Five years ago I was kind of surprised at a whole slew of new slang words that came out. "Yeet", "shots fired!", "I'm dead", and "throw shade" were just a handful of a new words I had been seeing on social media. I made it a point to look up what all of them meant on urban dictionary.
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| That's me. I'm the meme. |
"I'm not old", I'd tell myself. "Thirty-five isn't old, right?" After all, boomers were still talking about us like we were infants, declaring us the destroyer of all industries everywhere and blaming us for receiving the participation trophies that the boomers forced on us.
Now the eldest of us millennials (meaning, me) are forty. And in five years, some things changed. For starters, millennials aren't infantilized anymore. The youngest millennials are pushing thirty. The zoomers even roast us from time to time for being old. Nobody sees us as children anymore. And I'm good with it.
The last five years of my life had me chasing pop culture, partially because I was determined to prove to myself that I was still with "it", but about a month after turning forty I told myself, "You're forty now. Nothing you do is going to make a sixteen year old think you're one of them. And if you really tried to be one of them, you'd just look like a sad, pathetic old man who never grew up. Just accept that you're old now."
That is the honest truth. Elder millennials have become irrelevant to the youth.
There's something that feels freeing about that, about not having to worry about whether or not you're cool anymore.
There's a group on Facebook that inspired me to write this post. Formerly known as the Elder Millennial Support Group, the group is filled with folks in their late 30-early 40s that love to talk about our lost youth and reminisce about the old days.
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| Just one of many fine memes that the group has to offer |
Yes, we're reminiscing about the old days, but before anyone accuses us elder millennials of going boomer, there's a different energy to us talking about being older. For starters, most "boomer memes" make fun of the younger generations for not being like them. Instead of doing that, we make fun of ourselves for being old.
I think most of us are still reeling from being infantilized not so long ago, so we're not in any mood to talk shit to Generation Z.
Besides, what's there to talk shit about? Hair parts and skinny jeans? Who cares? We were doing middle hair parts and baggy jeans back in the 90s. The kids are alright by most metrics. They're more "woke" and more progressive than previous generations, and as long as conservative boomers keep accusing them of eating Tide Pods or some other dumb shit, things will probably stay that way.
So, I'm now too fucking old to be sitting as the cool kids' table, and I'm okay with that. I don't have to worry if I'm keeping up with pop culture trends. I can just be the lame dad or weird uncle now.
At least our generation had the best music. That's one thing we'll always have.
