Do you remember being a "millennial" ?

[senseandsensibility]

Last edited Thu Sep 22, 2016, 07:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I do. In 1980, I was 18. I was a very young millennial, although we didn't call it that then. I had a chance to vote in one of the most significant elections of our lifetime, but....

I COULDN'T BE BOTHERED.

This is what happened: my boyfriend was the only person motivated enough to vote in our college dorm. He drove around for what seemed like hours looking for the polling place with me listening to music in the passenger seat. He finally found the polling place and asked me if I wanted to come in and vote with him. I said no. He is a very agreeable sort, very liberal, and not the type to push his ideas. But I do remember him saying that I should vote against Reagan. I said no, I'd rather stay in the car and listen to music. I did.

Reagan won, and the rest is history.

Why do I tell this story? I tell it partly because it keeps me from judging today's millennial too harshly. I don't even recognize that 18 year old girl who was so disengaged anymore. But she existed. She was me. And the 20 year old boyfriend? He's my husband now.

What are your memories of that time in your life? What do they teach us in 2016?
Edited to add: I thought it was obvious when I put the word "millennial" in quotes in the OP, AND stated in the second sentence that we weren't called that THEN, that I was not calling myself a millennial NOW (at age 50 something). Apparently not.

[Binkie The Clown]

1. Millennials: "A person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000" n/t

[jehop61]

2. Gee

When I was that age, I was called a wife and mother and was extremely excited to cast my first vote for Lyndon Johnson. Maybe responsibility is too delayed now?

[treestar]

3. I didn't vote in that same election

when I could have - would have been my first. I just didn't have the brains to get an absentee ballot or to register in the state where I was in college. Other kids on my dorm floor were voting even from out of state, so I think it was possible to register in your school's state. Really dumb. It might have been good to have people who went around registering kids. With the internet and all that today, that could be easier.

My millennial nephew in college did not register, went out of state to college, his mother registered him, and she picked his party (Dem :rofl and he wanted to vote in the R primary and didn't figure that out until the day of said primary and had failed to request absentee ballot.

Moral of story: 18-21 are not always smart in practical things!

[senseandsensibility]

8. Thanks for your input, and it sounds like

we had a lot in common at that age. I was a very responsible teenager compared to some of my peers, but politics was just not a priority. Of course I am obsessed by politics now. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient with today's young people, I remember how I was. It keeps me humble.

[JanMichael]

4. Uh if you were born in 1962 you are an Xer. Edit: Oh crap no.

You are a "Joneser" or almost the youngest Boomer.

[BobbyDrake]

5. Your story makes me judge Millennials even MORE harshly. You didn't have the benefit of internet

or of all of the history available to learn that the newest voters have these days. You didn't have social media to keep you aware of current events. Millennials today have advantages that are orders of magnitude better than what you had at their age, and they are still squandering them.

[csziggy]

6. The first time I could vote was in 1972

I voted against Nixon and then was totally crushed when he won with a "landslide" - couldn't believe anyone would vote for that creepy guy. Then Watergate came out, along with all the other dirty tricks Nixon and his crew pulled. All my friends would get together between class and watch the Watergate hearings. We threw a HUGE party the night Nixon resigned!

I was so disgusted I didn't vote again until 1980. My husband's brother had campaigned for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and my husband convinced me that voting was important and that I had to vote. 1980 was nearly as depressing as 1972 - but Reagan never got nailed for his crimes. Since then I have voted in every election and will not skip a single one.

In 2012 the day after I got out of the rehab hospital after the second total knee replacement that year I went into the polling place to vote in the primary, bandages, walker and all. It's that important!

[BumRushDaShow]

7. We are (late) baby boomers

not millennials. I was 18 in 1980. The millennials are our children.

And I certainly registered as soon as I turned 18 and had to vote by absentee ballot (both for primaries and general elections) since I was in college out of town. My mother used to tell me the poll workers would always let her know that they had received my ballot (we had to request the paper absentee ballot at least 30 days in advance back then), when she went to her polling division to vote on election days.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. No, I remember being a young Gen X'er, though.

And I was always politically motivated.

However, I noticed a pretty big sort of socio-cultural demographic shift from the people a few years older than my cohort (such as yourself) and the people I came up with. The folks who graduated HS in the early part of the 80s seemed (to my mind) to have a whole bunch of stuff in the aether about political involvement and awareness not being "cool", etc.

As the latter part of the 80s came along I remember seeing a lot of stuff bubbling up under the surface, the beginnings of alternative music, bands like R.E.M. which were outspoken politically, that kind of thing. Sort of like the latter part of the 50s where the rebellion against postwar conformity and homogeneity that would explode in the 60s was getting started with the beats, etc.

And I always voted. I cast my first vote for Dukakis, and nothing was going to keep me from doing it.

[LeftInTX]

10. I turned 18 in 1974

I voted for Ford in 76 cuz, my parents were Republicans and I was a spoiled brat going to school on their dime.

In 1980, I had been out on my own working, I knew what was at stake.

I stood in a very, very long line to vote for Carter.

My kids are Millennials (24, 26, and 30) and if Trump wins, I don't think they will be apolitical anymore.

[JI7]

11. millennials will be millennials even when they are 50, 75, 90 etc

[GulfCoast66]

12. I have not missed an election

Since 1984 when I was 18.

Unfortunately, in all of the until much too recently I voted the wrong way

I am proof that people can change. That said, I was never the crazy religious right, tea party type. In fact, they are the ones that finally pushed me to become a Democrat. But traveling to Europe every couple of years since 1998 made me realize the whole Republican economic theory was bullshit.

I now am a Social Democrat in the European style.

And working to make amends for my past sins.

Have a nice evening.

[senseandsensibility]

13. Glad you saw the light!