Millennial.

It’s a label applied to our generation constantly, and a word loaded with stereotypes. We are self-absorbed, entitled, lazy, bad with money and incapable of finding work.

These messages are presented to our generation so often that many of us likely accept them as true.

Loyola students, the concept of the unemployable Millennial is a myth. It is an idea that we as students must not internalize.

  Admittedly, we may be a very self-assertive generation. We are hyper-social.  We probably do all think of ourselves as special.

But one thing we are not is unemployable. We are not uselessly skilled. We are not economically ignorant.

We write this, not because we want to complain about these stereotypes, but because we want to take some of these claims about Millennials to task.

There are a number of resources available to us that previous generations didn’t have. Many universities — ours included -— have programs entirely devoted to helping students find jobs.

At Loyola, we have the luxury of being able to develop professional relationships with our advisors and professors who can help us network and expose us to more opportunities.

We know that few of us are lucky enough to know precisely what we want to do for the rest of our lives. But we do all have the luxury of being able to experiment with our choices in a way that other generations weren’t.

Furthermore, arguing that our generation is  ignorant about money is false. If anything — thanks to our constant access to information — we’re hyper-aware of the world we have inherited.

Throughout the entirety of our lives, we’ve had the reminder of an unstable economy looming over our heads.

Our generation has reached the point where it can have a direct hand in stimulating the economy. And we’ve already started to do this by channeling our interests into profit: media, non-profit organizations and technology start-ups are infant industries, but they sure are booming.

Combine that with all the things that being raised by the Internet has taught us — networking, problem-solving, self-expression — and the myth  of the unemployable Millennial falls apart even more.

Millennial are a lot things, some of them good, others not. We’re not claiming to be better than or more special than previous generations. But we do argue against the idea that the opportunities we’ve inherited somehow make us less than any previous generation. More specifically, those opportunities don’t make us any less worthy of respect.

But we’re not here to dismiss our elders as irrelevant or obsolete.

In fact, we’d like to thank you for creating the world that’s allowed us to develop into the individuals we are.

We thank you for cultivating in us the qualities of globalism, self-worth and creativity. And we’ll use those qualities — along with a few things we’ve picked up on our own — as we enter the workplace and public sphere.

Step aside, Renaissance man.

You’ve got nothing on the Millennial.