Let me assure you, I have not met one kid who fits that description. None of the kids I’ve met seem to think that they are “special” any more than any other 18–22-year-old. These kids work their assess off. I have asked a couple of them to help me with my writing. One young woman volunteered to help me by proof-reading my “prose” and, for the record, I believe she will be the President someday. I recently listened while one of my closer pals, a kid from Portland, Oregon, talked to me about the beauty of this insane mathematics problem set he is working on. There is a young man in our group who grew up in Alaska working on fishing boats from a young age and who plays the cello. There is an exceptional young woman from Chicago who wrote a piece for the Yale Daily News expressing the importance of public demonstrations in light of a recent police shooting. She and I are polar opposites. I am the “patriarchy” at first glance, and she is a young black woman who is keen on public protests. Not the type of soul I generally find myself in conversation with. We come from different worlds and yet we both read classic works with open hearts and minds.

This was a cathartic paragraph to read. So much of my discontent with inter-generational discourse comes down to the mental image people have of young liberals as lazy, entitled, and fragile. This a priori conviction that we're too weak to face challenges and the condescension that flows from that have rankled every political discussion with my extended family for (at least) the last four years.

I know that I'm making the author into a surrogate for my militaristic uncles and accordingly jingoistic aunts, but I still feel a sense of vindication from being taken seriously by someone with their same thoughts.