Keeping Up with Gen Z

I have always been proud to be a Millennial. I have experienced life in two different centuries. I graduated from high school in the epic year of 2001. I have always been a bit of a go-getter, and I was used to being the youngest volunteer/colleague/leader in the room. When I started working at the University of Oklahoma, the students were also born in the 1900s. In fact, I remain close friends with some of the students that I worked with during my first year in an advisor role. Then slowly, but surely, things changed. For some reason, I had to start clarifying that I was an elder Millennial, being born in the early 1980s and all. People no longer called me “miss,” instead leaning into the greeting all women dread…ma’am. I was no longer being confused as a student. Speaking of students, while I didn’t feel any older, suddenly all of my students were not even alive when one of the most transformative events of my young adult life took place: 9/11. The students were getting my movie references less and less, and I was getting further and further behind in keeping up with the slang of the day. You live life knowing it happens to everyone, but when it happens to you, it just hits differently. What seemed like out of nowhere, I got old. 

But the beauty of working on a college campus and the generation that currently fills its halls and pays its tuition, Gen Z, is that while they definitely make me feel like the old lady in the room, they simultaneously keep me young. On the NMGZ field trip to Chicago, I got to spend time with students from all over the nation. It was fascinating to observe similarities to my students at the University of Oklahoma, but also cultural and regional differences. But one thing that rang 100% true from these young professionals was the fact that I was able to learn something from all of them. From the fun stuff like constantly changing slang and the most recent fashion trends to the more serious topics like interest in jobs that I didn’t know existed and how today’s economic challenges look from their perspectives, I genuinely learned as much from them as I hope they did from me. It is undeniable that the lessons that can only be learned through lived experience are truly priceless, and when you’re older, you just have more experience. But these more experienced generations would be wise to remember that equally valuable are the experiences and perspectives of Gen Z and those generations that are coming up behind them. Someday, they, too, will be o-l-d. But for now, we need to respect each generation for what they have to offer, regardless of their age. To that end, I am incredibly grateful to be a part of organizations like the National Millennial GenZ community and the opportunities it provides to my students, but also to an elder Millennial like me.