Why "Generation Y"

So I've finally decided to write a blog (and no, it's not because everybody and their brother is also doing it). I've set this up for my semester abroad mainly, but also to have a place to put all of my musings and random happenstances. I promise to try not to bore you with my thrilling (sarcasm noted) experiences of heroism and mystical adventures in everyday life.

As it happens, I've been trying to think of a title for this blog for a long time. I finally came up with the one you'll see above: "Finding Our Way in Generation Y." Running this past a couple of writer friends (and a non-writer roommate) today, the question of why our generation has been named "Generation Y" arose and has haunted me all day. So, being the inquisitive person that I am, I googled it.

There are many different speculations as to why and where "Gen Y" got its name. One of my favorites was a cartoon of a boy showing him from the back; his pants and underwear were sagging and ... well ... I think you can visualize the rest to get "Y." Another theory (which is highly plausible, but not entirely reliable since it came from Wikipedia) is that the generation of World War 2 was called the War generation. War = "W," therefore: Generation W. It's not much of a stretch to see that the next generation was called Generation X. After that is Generation Y (me!). On a personal take, though, about Y? Because we just don't know yet (pun intended).

As one of the younger Gen Y'ers, I feel like I have the world at my finger tips and am just hovering over the precipice, frantically grabbing at the ticket that's held just in front of me. If I take one more step, I could reach it and go soaring off into the frightening (yet wildly alluring) unknown that is my future.

So, with a year and a half left of college, I'm fast approaching that edge. And I'm one step closer to leaping into that free-falling flight that we call "the real world" with each passing day.