Millennial Development Goals

About the name…

The Millennium Development Goals are a list of eight goals dreamed up by the U.N. in the year 2000 to be completed by 2015.

I first learned about them in Professor Moeller’s International Education class my sophomore year. She presented this list of inspiring, unifying, future-driven goals. Then, in few words, she told us how they were all bull shit. I remember leaving the class upset with how negative my university education was (I later learned that this is what they call “critical thinking”).

These lofty goals were made in a room filled with representatives from 1^st world countries (former colonizers). They were made to “develop” the 3^rd world (previously colonized countries), without the consult of the 3^rd world.

Development is, as I understand it currently, the point of the Peace Corps (more on this over the next 2+ years?) Side note: what even IS development? I like to think that Peace Corps is of the grass-roots, bottom-up, inclusive pedagogy. Vamos a ver.

Millennials are the greatest generation. Don’t just take it from me! People write books about us, yo. We just want to change the world and make it better. We’re idealistic and believe in individual uniqueness and the power of diversity. This is reflected in how we think about building inclusive work settings, friend groups, and our rejection of colorblindness. We are constantly working towards bettering, whether it be our environment, our politics, our social systems, ourselves or our communities. We are volunteers and activists and apparently we tend towards irreligion. They call us the “Peter Pan Generation” because we stay in our youth longer by waiting for marriage and kids. We were raised by Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers and reacted to their teachings.

The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) were famous for a distrust of government. They expected that things would change with time, but still were active in social change, especially surrounding the Vietnam War. Oppositely, this generation is also the wealthy, white, men that are currently in power (don’t worry—not for much longer!) They believed in conservatism and were famous cynics and maintainers of the status-quo.

The Gen X-ers (1960-1979) are a small generation because the birth control pill was introduced in the years leading up to 1960. They were born when society was less focused on rearing kids, and more focused on adult development. They are known as the “latch-key” generation because there was reduced adult supervision due to an increased divorce rate, an increase in maternal workforce and lagging childcare options. Gen X-ers are famous for being slackers, cynical and for being the “unfocused 20-somethings”. Think of the hit TV show “Friends”: self-involved, fun, aimless. 

Us millennials reacted to the teaching of our parents. We took some things, rebelled against others and created the best generation to date. Here are some conversations I have with my fellow millennials make me excited for the future:

• ·         A young man I went to high school with wants to open his own innovative furniture business.  The dream is to bring it back to his community so that he can teach kids who normally might not even finish high school a sustainable trade.
• ·         A boss-lady and dear college friend of mine got into the field of college success for low-income college kids because she struggled throughout college making ends meet, dealing with debt, the financial aid office and transferring between schools.
• ·         My sister wants to go into the field of international human rights via NGO work because she thinks that violations of human rights are worth dedicating your professional life to.
• ·         An inspiring young man and good college friend got into making music. Not just because he’s ridiculously talented, but to open a dialogue about diverse realities in the U.S., and to celebrate being black and brown.
• ·         A young woman and dear college friend decided that two years of her “prime” were best spent in a rural town in Uganda working alongside local agriculture workers and learning the language Runyankole-rukiga, so she joined Peace Corps.
• ·         Literally every human in my 17-01 cohort here in Peace Corps Dominican Republic. One of the most inspiring group of genuine people who expand my mind, nourish my soul, call me on my shit and push me to be the best possible human being I can be. Shout out to #famsquad!

Millennials get a lot of hate from old people. Probably because we challenge the status-quo and because we don’t like the world that they left us. The future is female (©, probably.) It’s black and brown and powerful. It’s inclusive and collaborative and respects the environment. It’s activist and changing. And it started when millennials began taking positions of power.

So I call this blog “Millennial Development Goals” because I work in “development”. But also because Millennials are so obsessed with constantly improving themselves and their world. I’m interested to see over the course of my life how my beautiful, sparkly generation decides to take on “development”. SHINE ON, MY 20-SOMETHINGS, SHINE ON!

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Here’s a cool quote about being an optimist (because for some reason people assume that optimists are ignorant or stupid):

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage and kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
--Howard Zinn