A generation like ours is forced to alter itself due to circumstances which society creates, and thus we get a name. Our generation has many names, just like the generations who will come in the future will have. For as we progress in society, the rapid effects of what has occurred each and every day work to define who we are, but it doesn’t have to.

We have been called the 9/11 generation, the Progressive Generation, and even the Coddled Generation, but a name doesn’t define who we are, and it doesn’t define our future. We can only know who we are if we decide it for ourselves.

So what is to come in the future? Nobody knows exactly, but it is expected to contain even more titles than what we know now. The world is changing, containing even more fear of terrorism and rising tension between competing countries than it has in the past. This, coupled with other societal changes, and the name is bound to alter itself.

We are all progressive in nature. The world is filled with places with some “crazy” people who are willing to hurt others, but also those who will revolutionize an industry, advance our knowledge and discover new things. These actions amidst people who we might call “crazy” help define us; we define us.

Society is maturing and with its maturation comes understanding, like it does with a name and like it does with a generation. Our actions as individuals will define what those who have yet to gain a title will call us, and what we call them. We cannot choose the circumstances that work to define us, but we can say how we handle each one that we are posed with.

As a generation, the mold of being coddled or selfish can be broken and we can change and choose for ourselves by simply deciding to face our problems head on. As the Millennials, we can define ourselves as something greater than what has ever occurred in the past. We don’t know what is going to come, but for now, only we can determine how we are going to react.