the true millennials

Our children are our future. It's not an alternative fact, it simply is, and always has been, always will be. It's the nature of humanity. We die, they live on and take over. The cycle of life.

But this new set of children, these true millennial humans who didn't just come of age in the new century, but actually came to be as members of a new millennium, are somehow different, and the world that they will create will revolutionize all that we have known to date. They are just working their way through high school now, and while we, the baby boomers, learned about ecology, and taking care of the planet, not littering and trying to separate our recycling, for them the importance of this is wired into their very cells. We've taught them these things because we knew we should, and they have learned. We've given them choices--maybe too many choices, sometimes--about what they want to eat, where they want to go, what they want to wear and who they want to be with. And the presence of those eternal options, for better or worse, have had sweeping ramifications.

This is the generation that describes their heterosexual peers as "cis-gendered" without batting an eye. They accept a fluidity of gender identification as utterly normal. They don't care who you love, as long as you do it authentically, and while they may judge some things, as teenagers always are wont to do, their judgement is (mostly) specific and not targeted at race or sex or religion. The burden of proof falls on those who display their prejudice, an act for which they are deeply chastised. "You be you" they say, and largely mean it. This is the generation that has redefined "aesthetic" to include a hard-wired understanding that everyone see things differently, and that those differences are curious and interesting--and important to know about. So when one has neon green hair, the other appreciates it with interest but honestly says, "that's just not my aesthetic." It is a viewpoint turned completely over on itself, and one that will make our world, our future, something we never could have imagined possible just a hundred years ago.

And their love. They love humans as humans, without considering the right or wrong of it. Their "aesthetic" on relationships turns what we understand as attraction on it's head. The question, "so, are you attracted to boys or girls?" is not so easily answered anymore, or needn't be. To reply, "I'm not sure yet" is as valid a response as any. No longer must they call themselves homosexual, heterosexual or bi-curious, for they have the choice--that we started by letting them have mac and cheese or hot dogs, or wearing orange polka dots and pink stripes together, and applauding their creativity--and they accept these wide open options as their due.

I believe we will see emerge a generation of humans who choose to love based on deeper qualities than physical characteristics and gender compatibility, but on true connection. While our parents told us to "look beyond the surface for the real person inside", they really do. Conceivably we will see lifelong relationships built solely on personal connection, attraction deriving from a deep seated trust and caring, regardless of gender. We talk about sexual orientation, but I think by the next century that will disappear entirely, and humans will connect and build relationships with other humans, regardless of color, sex or the absence of sexual identity altogether. And I'm really proud of them, and maybe a little even us, for that.