I think Mr. Rogers gets a bad rap.

In many a discussion, this kind man has been used as scapegoat for people hating on “lazy millenials,” namely pinpointing his constant recitation of his uplifting opinion that we could be anything we want to be. This post admittedly isn’t a rejoinder against the idea that millenials are lazy, which will probably be a later post seeing as how a DESPISE watching so many of my friends grind in creative fields just for people to call us lazy, but then that’s the nature of generational discrimination (I’ve already caught myself and those close to me judging the generation below us for various things). No, this post is focusing directly on that mantra: that you can be anything you want to be.

Growing up, I can vouch that my generation heard this a LOT. I obviously can’t say anything for higher generations, but we heard it on TV and in movies. We heard it from parents, from teachers, from coaches, from counselors. We did exercises in early grades focused on dreaming big and deciding what we want to be in the future. We graduated to a reading from Dr. Seuss’s “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” This was the world we lived in: a world that constantly told us to lock in our dreams and do what it takes to achieve those. Continue reading →