Understanding Entitlement

It always frustrates me when people speak of my generation and how entitled we are. I never felt like I was entitled. I have a good work ethic, have always worked hard to earn what I have, and though I never expected handouts, but as I grow older I have come to see in the generations preceding me the type of entitlement my generation has been accused of. Why is it we have become generations of entitled people?

Recently my husband and I have been watching WWII period movies and it amazes me to see how people had character and perseverance in the face of adversity that you don’t see today. It struck me all of the sudden, that my generation grew up in a period of stability. Our parents didn’t have trouble getting jobs, they could find houses, people weren’t going hungry. We don’t know suffering and therefore we expect things to be good- to be provided for us, handed to us like they have been our whole life. We have no idea how to persevere when things get hard, to take life as it comes, to accept and move on. We are devastated by the slightest deviation from our expectations.

Until last year, I have not know suffering, hard circumstances, or loss. I have come to see that suffering is a part of life. It is not punishment. It is not deserved. Sometimes there is no foreseeable reason for it. I won’t lie, the losses of last year nearly killed me.