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Adulthood Is Dead. Now Millennials Are TRAPPED - Video học tiếng Anh
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The Infographics Show
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Adulthood Is Dead. Now Millennials Are TRAPPED
Adulthood Is Dead. Now Millennials Are TRAPPED
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Millennials make up 22% of the US population - that’s the largest share of any generation. So
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why do so many of them still feel like impostors? Find out on this episode of The Infographics Show.
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Being a millennial means growing up straddling two worlds: the age of free-range kids and the
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dawn of the digital era. But you’re not a kid anymore. You’ve got the job. You’ve got
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the annual tax return. And something about it feels off. When your dad was your age,
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he seemed like he was on top of the world. He always knew what he was doing - whether
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he was fixing a tire or negotiating with the contractors for a better deal.
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Meanwhile, you’re watching cartoons on YouTube and microwaving mac and cheese.
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Boomers make jokes about millennials being “perpetual teenagers” - rude, yes,
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but maybe not entirely inaccurate. Your generation has caught up in some ways,
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like jobs and finances, but in others…not so much. Many millennials negotiate corporate contracts or
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perform medical procedures by day, and by night retreat to their one-bedroom apartment, with only
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a cat or a roommate for company, heating up a frozen meal or ordering DoorDash. It’s a modern
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day Jekyll and Hyde: competent and professional by day, regressing to childlike habits by night.
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But somehow, you never quite feel like an adult. And you’re not alone.
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Studies show that over 50% of millennials and Gen Z feel like they never figured out how to
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“adult right”. An even higher percentage, 63%, say they were never prepared for what it would
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be like to be an adult. Many report feeling like they haven’t changed much since adolescence,
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instead larping through life - pretending to be an adult just to keep their job. It doesn’t
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matter if someone is a high-powered executive or a fast-food worker, this
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phenomenon cuts across socioeconomic lines and is surprisingly common among younger generations
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But why does this feel so common?
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For the longest time, you were sure it was just a ‘you’ problem. You called it impostor
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syndrome - the idea that you weren’t supposed to be where you are. You’re successful…by millennial
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standards. You have an office job… with an actual desk. You’re not gigging for food money. And yet,
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those creeping doubts keep making you feel like, any moment now,
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you’ll be escorted out of the building. The more you read, the clearer it
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becomes… it’s not just you. You’re not immature, and you’re definitely not alone.
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There’s even a name for this feeling. Many millennials describe it as muddling
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through the current stage of life, waiting for something to happen that will snap them out of
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it and kick-start the life they’re supposed to have - a life that often looks an awful lot like
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their parents. This is called the “Waiting Room Effect” - the sense that you aren’t truly living
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your life yet, that you’re just waiting for the signal that it’s officially begun.
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But what if that signal never comes? As a kid, you spent countless hours in
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the mall arcade, staring at loading screens that tempted you to drop your hard-earned
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quarters on a game. Walking through life sometimes feels the same - a temporary state,
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waiting for the ‘real stuff’ to begin. You’ve been paying rent for years, still waiting for
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the moment to get a place of your own. Your job isn’t exactly what you dreamed of, but it pays the
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bills - and it’s better than driving Uber. It’s okay, just not what you really wanted to be doing.
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So how do you know when it’s really time to take the plunge?
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It’s easy for millennials to just muddle through life, waiting for the perfect opportunity - only
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to realize the years are catching up on them. Nearly half of millennials - 47.6% - are still
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renting. Over a third relies on gig work - which offers more freedom, but less stability.
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Many of the classic signifiers of adulthood - buying a home, having a stable career,
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starting a family - are no longer as easy to come by.
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For many past generations, entering adulthood wasn’t a choice - it was a notice from the
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government. It used to be very common for young men to be drafted into the military,
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which tended to have them come out hardened and more mature - as well as to give them practical
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skills that made it easy to obtain a job. Those days are over - but life certainly feels a lot
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less structured now. Other milestones, like marriage, also used to be far more organized.
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And so you wait…again and again. With so many millennials finding
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themselves in the same boat, it’s clear this isn’t just a personal struggle. Almost every
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millennial you talk to says the same thing: they’d like to own their own place, get married, start a
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family. But the opportunities never seem to line up. They hustle, try to get a little more secure,
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push for the door to open - but it doesn’t budge. The door feels stuck…or worse, locked.
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This generation’s idea of success is still shaped by the one we grew up with - a family
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on TV living in the suburbs. Dad had a steady job, mom either ran the household
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or managed her own career while still getting dinner on the table every night. There were
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a couple of kids and more than enough room for everyone. It was the kind of life to aspire to.
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It was the “the American Dream” and it largely started in the 1950s.
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A massive manufacturing boom in the post-World War II era provided cheap and accessible customer
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goods and houses - and the boom in jobs made them more accessible than ever before. These
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became the landmarks of adulthood. You get a steady job you can hold until retirement,
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you buy a house and a car, you get married,
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and you raise the next generation to embrace the American Dream just like you did.
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But more and more of those landmarks are out of reach these days.
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The price of housing and cars is skyrocketing, and good-paying jobs are becoming few and far between.
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That’s left many millennials stuck renting and cobbling together enough money each month - and
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with the cost of rent going up as well, that makes it harder and harder to put away enough money to
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kick-start your American dream. The house and car has been replaced by the apartment and bus pass.
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And that leads to a terrifying reality. Most
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millennials are now one single bad day away from losing everything.
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In a shocking statistic, almost three-fourths of millennials say they’re living paycheck
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to paycheck. That means saving is nearly impossible, and if something goes wrong - an
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unexpected medical bill or a sudden layoff - homelessness isn’t out of the question.
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Landlords are rarely sympathetic when you say, “I’ll get you next month,” and that makes it
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hard to feel like an established adult. This sense of precarity has replaced the
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stability of being an adult, and that’s led many millennials to make a grim realization.
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The world they grew up in isn’t coming back.
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Millennials don’t feel like they truly own their lives - it’s more like they’re renting them,
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just temporarily in this stage before real life begins. And when you rent something,
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it’s human nature to go a little harder on it. This is often called the “Rental
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Car Theory.” When you drive a rental, you don’t change the oil or wash the windows.
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You drive it hard and hand it back. But the rest of our lives don’t work that way.
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When you apply this theory to your relationships and your money,
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you'll see why everything feels like it’s falling apart.
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Millennials tend to treat everything in their life this way, as they wait for the next phase
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to begin. This includes relationships, which are often far more casual than they are for other
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generations. Millennials tend to spend less time with friends in person, and that has become even
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more pronounced with Gen Z. Rather, both groups spend more time online, with casual acquaintances.
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And that lack of roots is spreading just about everywhere.
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The millennial pivot to casual, online interactions has also led the generation
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to have major problems with dating and romantic relationships. Only 44% of millennials are married
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as of 2025, and only around half have kids - far below the level of the Boomers or Gen X.
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And if you’re just a tourist in your own life, is there any point to improving things?
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You’ve had your moments where you feel like you’re just passing through,
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like nothing you’re doing right now really matters. You’re looking towards the future,
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and everything you’re doing now feels like it’s just a casual part of your
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life. And when you’re not looking at the future, you’re looking at the past.
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But is that nostalgia a comfort, or is it the very thing keeping you trapped?
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Another area where millennials are lagging is the stock market,
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which has always been one of the steadiest ways to get long-lasting wealth. Only 57% of
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Gen Z and Millennials are invested in the stock market, and that number goes down
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with age. The stock market is designed to gain value over time, and that kind
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of long-term investment isn’t the direction most millennials are thinking. And of course,
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there’s the problem of many millennials just not having the money to invest in blue-chip stocks.
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And with no future we can see, apathy starts creeping in.
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Even if you’ve been in the same place for years, you still feel like the next
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turn is right around the corner - and as such it’s easier to just muddle through.
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But while it removes some of the stresses of trying to do the big things from your life,
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it also leaves a deep sense of ennui. What are you going to look like in 20
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more years? What’s your plan for the future? It’s scary to think about.
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And sometimes, the only comforting thing you can imagine is the past.
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It might have been 20 or more years ago, but for many millennials, it’s still the 1990s. That’s
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when everything was good and easy. The mall was thriving. Your hobbies were affordable.
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And it’s not easy to let go. Millennials have a higher rate of nostalgia-dwelling
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than any other generation - and you can see it most clearly in the “Disney Adults.” But
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other people say these groups are living in a Peter Pan world, refusing to grow up.
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And to make it even worse, it’s not just the grownups - now, even the
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younger generations are starting to notice. In recent years, millennials have faced the
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ultimate indignity - Gen Z is making fun of them. Interacting with younger cousins makes it clear
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just how cynical they are. While millennials remember a world that seemed to make sense,
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Gen Z feels like they’ve grown up in a world that never quite fits. So when they watch
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you wax rhapsodic about the Super Nintendo or Blink-182, it just makes you look silly - and
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don’t even get them started on Harry Potter. But nostalgia isn’t going away anytime soon.
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The world is scary and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Technology is moving fast,
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especially since AI came onto the scene. You’re not just worried about finding a
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better job - you’re worried about keeping your own. Looking at the news most days
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just makes you more anxious, so it’s not a surprise that it’s easier to look back - and
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find comfort in those things that used to make you happy back when you were a kid.
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But the problem is, you might have stopped moving forward altogether.
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Nostalgia is seductive. But deep down, you know you can’t make new memories,
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only revisit old ones. The waiting room is nicer than ever - but it’s still time
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to leave. Think of the trappings of nostalgia like the snack machine in a waiting room - it’s
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tempting to stay there. But as comforting as it is, you’re still waiting for someone.
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And here is the truth that most people aren't ready to hear.
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This time, there is no doctor. You decide when it’s your turn. Life itself can feel like a
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waiting room, and you’re waiting for permission to move on to the next stage. You’re not alone.
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Millions of millennials feel the same way - and so did the Boomers and Gen X when
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it was their turn. They were just faking it till they made it, just like you are.
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In fact, there’s some scary news. Real life doesn’t stop for anyone. No
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one is coming to save you, no one is handing you a shortcut into the life you’ve always
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dreamed of. The only person who can? Yourself. It might be the scariest thing you’ve ever realized.
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You’re on your own. You’re the grown-up now, and you have to make the hard choices.
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It’s terrifying - but it’s also incredibly freeing.
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The door isn’t locked. You just have to decide to open it. Visualize what you want your future to be
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- and take the first step. To do that, you’ll have to let go of the safety net and take the big risks
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you’ve been avoiding for so long. Then, maybe, you’ll see what adulthood actually looks like for
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you. It’s up to you to determine what adulthood looks like for your generation, even if it doesn’t
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come with the same stability that it used to. Your life is a little messy - and that’s okay.
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You don’t need a stable world - you just need to own your own chaos. It’s up to you to decide what
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that chaos looks like. You can start pursuing your dream, even if you’re juggling it alongside a day
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job. And hey - maybe you’re not spending Friday night binging old cartoons this week. Maybe you’re
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going out to talk to people. In person. Because there’s only one door out of the
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waiting room. And once you step through it, everything changes.
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Check out “Why Millennials Are Stuck Living In Financial Crisis on Repeat”,
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or watch “Every Generation Explained in 10 Minutes”.
