Gen X Archives - Adulting: Second- Half

Danger Zone

On Thursday, my two youngest children (ages 18 and 21) and I went to see the new Top Gun movie. It was great. It wasn’t deep or meaningful or even gut wrenching. (The first Top Gun was a little gut wrenching. Goose’s death was honestly a little devastating in that movie.) Top Gun: Maverick was just fun and thrilling and action-packed and entertaining and perhaps even a little self-deprecating.

It’s fun to watch my young adult children’s appreciation of the things that marked my own coming of age in the 1980s. They loved the Top Gun movie and they even loved the original, which they watched before we went to go see the new one. I’ve even heard a few of my own teenage boom box favorite songs, playing on their playlists, and they think that Winona Ryder is just terrific. (albeit as the mom in Stranger Things)

My generation, Gen X, throughout the years has often been portrayed as angsty and aimless and forgotten, but when I am reminded of what Gen X has brought into being, from a cultural sense, I see the fun, and the lightness, and the goofiness, and the “go with the flow” which has marked our generation. I see a timeless, unapologetic, “chilled out” individualism that is so attractive in these times of constant judgment and aggravation amongst different groups of people. These days we are so busy shifting blame, assigning shame, and putting labels on everybody and everything, that we forget that life is mostly supposed to be an amazing adventure to be experienced without definitions. Sometimes, it’s important to just sit back, and take a fun, meaningless ride on the “Highway to the Danger Zone.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Can’t Touch This

I saw this post on Twitter yesterday and it made me proud to be a Gen X, 80s kid!! Our rappers are brilliant. They paved the way. What I like about 1980s rap is that a lot of it, is fun and goofy and upbeat. Don’t ever believe that there isn’t brilliance underneath lighthearted jams. It’s Hammer Time!! You can’t touch this!!

Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Respect the X

I am a Gen-Xer and I’m proud of that fact. No one is too concerned about Gen X. We are sandwiched in between two huge, loud, stereotyped, sometimes seemingly self-absorbed generations, those being the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. Marketers and historians are much more interested in these two generations. I was on a reunion trip with some college friends a couple of years ago. A friend who works for a remodelers’ association was telling us what people were currently looking for in home features. She listed the different things that the Boomers like and how that differed from what the Millennials want in their homes.

“So, what are they saying about what our generation wants?” we all asked her.

She looked uncomfortable and stated awkwardly, “They really haven’t studied us.” In short, no one cares.

You know what, though? I used to think of us Gen-Xers as cast-off victims. We were never expected to amount to much, often being painted as aimless slackers when we were younger. And that’s okay. You know why? When there are no expectations, you have a lot of freedom. We Gen-Xers do things are own way, without the ropes of stereotypes. I’d venture to say that we are probably the most individualistic generation because no one has bothered to paint their perceptions about us too much. We have been defined, by more than one source, as independent, resourceful and self-sufficient. Perhaps the blessings of those positive qualities come from being mostly ignored.

I like to think of us Gen-Xers as the tortoise versus the hare. We’re not flashy, assuming, or entitled. We fly under the radar, and we like it that way. Have you ever watched a movie with a lot of dramatic, colorful characters going through all kinds of trials, and in that movie there is that one “Steady Eddie” character in the background? That steady character that I’m talking about is the calm in the storm; the guy who rises above the fray, just quietly doing his thing and keeping the peace. After you watch a movie like that and you think about all of the crazy antics of the high profile characters, you start really appreciating “the guy in the background doing his thing.” In fact, sometimes you realize that “that unassuming guy” was actually your favorite character in the movie. Today I give my respect to my fellow Gen-Xers. Today, I think you guys are my favorite characters in this movie called Life.