Millennial is a buzz word. Technically it means anyone 18-35, but it has different meanings for different people. For some it is an annoying teenager who doesn’t know how to interact in the real world. For others it is a huge group of people to advertise to with hash tags and jump cuts. But for me and my friends, it’s us. I am a millennial in the technical sense of the word and the stereotypical. I love social media and Apple products. I watch a lot of Netflix and YouTube and I have been out of college for a year and am still working two part time jobs.

I’m not saying this is true of all millennials. I have many friends who have high-paid full-time jobs. Who are working at the careers they went to school for and want to stay in. However, for most of us, that isn’t a reality. This isn’t just my inside experience, it has been talked about. It’s more okay for millennials to live with their parents or work shitty part time jobs to make rent. It’s not that we don’t want to be successful, it’s that we have different dreams than past generations.

My parents went to school to be teachers. When they graduated they got teaching jobs. They didn’t have an “off year” where they watched court shows and job searched. They did what everyone else did, worked hard in college and started their careers. It isn’t that easy anymore for a few reasons.

It started with the economic crash. Employers were cutting back right when millennials started to enter the “real world.” It wasn’t just that people weren’t hiring, but people older than us who were laid off from a career during the crash were not reentering the job market. For the first time in a long time we weren’t only competing against our peers but also our parents and siblings and aunts and uncles. There are less jobs and way more competition.

But that didn’t crush the hopes of millennials because we are such a hopeful generation. We created other jobs from bloggers, to YouTubers, to social media consultants. Fresh out of college, it became clear that our options were more limited than when our parents entered the working world, so we started to find our own way. The biggest trick with manufacturing a career from nothing is waiting to get paid for what we’re created. So we end up living back at home or working at Target while we try to take our passions and skills and turn them into careers.

At the end of the day, millennials are in a pretty rough situation but we’re making the most of it. You better believe we’re not going to settle.