Can I just say something? Our generation gets a lot of flack - lazy, selfish, entitled, bla, bla, bla... Well I think they're all just wrong. I have been so inspired by my generation, recently especially. You are my graduating class, my friends, my family and my inspiration. I have come across so many stories of resilience, dream-chasing, never ending faith and blooming. Back when I started blogging and was a freshly minted college grad we all got thrown in this ocean called life and told to swim. We were told to do "what our parents did" to work hard and on the other side would be waiting a beautiful two story home complete with new appliances and two lovely cars. We would move up the "ladder" and we would eventually start a family. Except that very same year all those dreams came crashing down. And what did we learn? What did we do?
We learned that we don't want that "dream house" anyway. We learned that family is what matters most and most of us starting working on one not because our wallets told us we could have one but because our hearts yearned for one. We lost jobs and learned to hustle and by way of that hustle learned what it is that truly makes us happy in the first place. We learned that a college education doesn't guarantee a cushy job and it's going to take a whole lot more than we were told to achieve our dreams. And somewhere along that path our dreams changed too. We learned that we don't need a lot of stuff and that that Ikea dresser you and your partner put together holds a lot more memories than one that would have been delivered via a "white glove" service straight to your door. We got crafty and thrifty and humbled.
I also don't see a lot of complaining. Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places but from where I sit I see a lot of gratitude. I see happiness. I see joy. I see us smiling through the crappy days and reaching out to give a hug or get a hug. I see us united in this struggle and I see striving for happiness every day not just the good days. I suppose we're probably even a little scared to complain because we're so used to being berated all the time for the laziness, entitlement, etc...
And so we work quietly. We don't expect accolades, we just hope that next month is better than the last. We hope that one day this will all pay off. We also don't wait for that rainbow on the other side, we paint one today.
I suppose this is just my love letter to all of you out there. I am just so proud of us. Proud of us for the humble dreams we've dreamed up for ourselves and our families. Proud of the way we go about reaching them and proud of us for trying, trying and trying again. We may not be our parents, we may not have what they had but I think most of us have learned by now that we never wanted that anyway.
I'm so proud of all of your small business, magazines, shops, books, families, blogs, paintings and photographs! Keep at it!! And remember we're in this together so lets never forget to reach out a helping hand the way someone once reached out to us.

*think this is all just my opinion? turns out I'm not the only one