The Generation in-between

Photo courtesy of: http://generationxnz.blogspot.com/2015/07/gen-x-and-gen-y_27.html

I was told I’m too old to be a millennial and too young to be a Gen X-er so I went online to research which generation I really belong to. I am actually both. Those born between the end of the Gen X and the beginning of Gen Y are actually called Xennials (sounds kindda hip and cool diba? Sige na, pagbigyan niyo na ako). We are said to bear traits of both generations. We have mostly the work ethics of the Gen Xers and the tech-y traits of the Millennials. Let’s break that down.

I grew up during the time when the internet wasn’t born yet. We experienced playing under the moonlight and knock on neighbor’s doors to call on our playmates. We bought multicolored chicks from the nearby school and brought home countless of animals and insects. We bought scramble for the vendor on the street and picked a number and won prizes. We made efforts to connect to people. We wrote letters and waited for months for replies. We knew what telegrams were for, usually bad bad news of family members illnesses or deaths. And who could forget “partylines?!?” I remember walking in my grandparent’s village and my aunt or my mom or dad knocking on the gate of the partyline to ask them to give us a chance to use the landline.

Then computers arrived in my life around the late 80s. I remember my parents having one in our shop in Project 2 where my dad set-up his electronics repair business. I was in awe at the technology and it was then that I knew I was a tech-y person and would utilize technology to it’s fullest. It helped that my dad was a tech-y person as well and I was given every gadget available during that time from my pocket organizer, palm pilot, beeper, cellphone, sega, playstation and our own computer for surfing and school use. In college, group works would always be scheduled in our home because we would have all the necessary tools from my mom and dad’s home office;  computers, our colored printers and not to mention our own photocopying machines. My tech-y cells were nourished greatly by the availability of products given by my parents.

Today, I am the one of the tech-iest Xennial alive but I still have my romance with my pens and notebooks. While I have my library of ebooks, I still yearn to own paperback copies of books and find joy in smelling each page as soon as they come out of the plastic. While I take every possible snapshot of the food I eat, places I’ve been to and people I encounter, I also relish every moment I spent with my boys without taking a single photo and live in precious moments with them in my heart. I am a product of both generations and it is an advantage really. I am blessed and fortunate to still be a high tech person as well as a high touch person. This way, I will be able to raise my Gen Z boys as balanced as I can. So fellow Xennials out there, let’s make this count! Boo yah!