What do Millennials want to do most of all?

I often wonder what the world will be like in the future. Will our planet just melt down, be swept in floods, will the human race die out? Or will people find a way to stop this destructive path, find a better way to take care of the environment, save resources, produce less waste, and live simply and in harmony with nature? I care about the human kind. And I care about my daughter who is almost five now. I would like her to live in a safe and happy world.

So speaking of the future of our planet, we have to admit that it depends a lot on the people who will be living on that planet at the time, who will have the powerful positions and make the important decisions. And who are these people? Well, the generations that are young now – the Millennials and Generation Pragma (my daughter). And us of course, as long as we are alive. Since I do not know them that well, I had to find out more about these generations in order to know where the human race is heading.

Therefore, I went to a lecture of Kairos Future talking about the different generations and their values, desires and priorities. I learned that these are quite cyclical and tend to repeat every 20 years. The Baby Boomers (our parents born between 1940 and 1960) are Self-assured Prophets – builders of the society, long-term planners, engineers with optimistic culture. I call them hippies, although my mom is not hippie. Generation X (me and everyone born between 1960 and 1980) are the Social Workers with passionate culture and strong convictions, pro maximum concentration of power, and a bit cynical. Well, yes, the Cynical Nomads who question everything, I recognise myself there. And now we come to the Millennials – Constructive Pragmatics, entrepreneurs, strong individuals with cynical culture and pro maximum division of power. The next generation (those born after 2000) Generation Pragma are the Diplomats – Leaders for change and action, well-cared for, but with a practical culture.

So the lecture actually focused mostly on Millennials, their desires and values.  A lot of facts were revealed – that their formative years were impacted by important events such as the attack on the WTC, the Financial Crisis of 2008, the Global Warming alarm (Al Gore’s  movie “An Inconvenient Truth” started the wave). I learned that most of them are pro multicultural society, say that the traits they respect the most are: the ability to be a good parent, being well-read and intelligent and keeping a family together. They dream of getting a good job (although with less emphasis on the “true calling” thing), of having a nice and safe place to live, finding the right partner and having kids. No surprises there.

They want safe jobs, normal working hours, nice and long holidays. I would have thought that they would be more adventurous, creating their own jobs, outside the traditional labor market (only 30% of them are self employed). But, hey, these are the facts!

What surprised me the most actually was the fact that what Millennials want the most is….. to close the door, do nothing and not be bothered! It got me thinking. Have we become so overwhelmed with information and demands that we just want to close the door and not be bothered? In an age where everything is changing very quickly  – concepts of the workplace, professions, relationships traditions – do we just get too confused and overwhelmed? Is it a primal instinct to just close the door and keep all “the noise” out?

I certainly do get overwhelmed, although not a Millennial, and generally can juggle a lot of things at the same time! I enjoy doing different projects – interviewing interesting profiles for Success Stories Magazine, attending Fashion Week and Stockholm Tech Fest, writing fashion trend analysis, teaching, working out, going to lectures on sustainability, new technology, start-ups. And yes, sometimes I too, just want to close the door, curl on the sofa and watch some series! Because even though I find all those activities terribly exciting, the truth is that for some of them I do not get paid.  So I shouldn’t bother, right? But no – I still want to do all these things, feel the pressure to be there and perform the tasks I have taken on. So yes, I am trying to do too many things at the same time, and should leave some time just for myself! And I try to do that. To the best of my abilities…..

But I still wonder – why are we pushing ourselves so much? Is it because there is so much pressure, so many expectations, the fear that we will miss out on something very interesting? All of the above perhaps. And yes, everyone needs a break now and then. I just hope that for the important things in life we are ready to leave that sofa, jump out and save our planet. Because it is up to us after all.

What is a ball at the castle?

 I grew up with dreamy fairy tales. Like most of you did. Snow white, Cinderella, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid – all the lovely stories with the princes and princesses, true love, balls in the castle. So the notion of balls for me was something abstract, they happened only in fairytales or in ancient times with kings and queens, but not in real life. But all girls dream of going to a ball anyways. I did too.

My first ball was in 2007 in Sweden – my husband graduated from the Executive MBA program at Stockholm School of Economics, and the ball was in the Golden room of the City Hall. Yes, the same City Hall where the Nobel Prize dinner takes place each year. What excitement! I was going to a ball for the first time in my life! Don’t you love these Scandinavian traditions of organizing balls for graduations and the like? I started searching for a dress, and since we did not have too much money at the time, my ball gown budget was limited. No fairy godmother to provide me with a free one there. 🙂 But finally I found a dress, matched it with golden shoes, a sparkly purse and a pashmina scarf. We dined, we danced, someone managed to step on the train of my dress, but hey, it was all lovely!

My second ball was in 2011. At Uppsala castle! We have a good friend, who has a friend singing in a choir, and that choir has a dinner and a ball every year on Valborg at Uppsala castle. However, that ball invitation was preceded by us salivating and looking on the ball preparations the year before. We watched as our friends put their tuxedos and ball gowns on, fixed their coiffure and adorned themselves with jewels. With our longing air trailing behind us we left the ball goers and drudged down to the train station. Our friend must have guessed our desires because the year after we were invited! I was frantically looking for a dress to wear again, even tried my wedding dress, but since I was three months pregnant already, it did not fit me. So it was the ball gown from 2007 again. We checked into Uppsala Grand Hotel and this time it was our turn to get dressed in our lovely attires, fix the coiffure and adorn ourselves with jewels. We walked to the castle (it was bit nippy!), ate a three course meal, watched the bonfire and listened to the spring songs, danced and loved every minute of it! In my excitement I even bought a dress that I was planning to wear on that same ball the year after. But the year after we were not invited. The dress is still hanging unused in my wardrobe, sighing, fluttering with expectation each time I open the door.

This year there is a ball at the US Embassy that I am invited to. I would like to go but I am not sure if I will get to go. Would my husband like to join me, can we find a nanny for that day, if not, would someone else like to join me? I can listen to some Johan Strauss and pretend I am there. After all, what is a ball at the castle?