Millennial Conundrum!

What does it feel like to be a millennial and live in the world where everything can be swiped left or right? Everything is available with the click of a finger ? What does it feel like to have everything you could only imagine right by your footsteps? If it was 70 's or before that, it definitely sounds like a happy life where you have more supply to meet your demands. But are we happy? Are we content? Do we love ourselves enough?The answer to is No! Our lives are lackluster, despite having everything . Why is that so? Do we really not have everything we need or have we lost our genes to be content? Yes you heard me right, probably our genes are modified upon the boom of millennial generation, I mean what else can explain this phenomenon of grumpy faces and pained hearts. I am no different so this year I promised myself to get to the bottom of it. If you know there is a problem, well it has to be fixed after all a stitch in time does save nine. Flashback more than a decade ago, when I immigrated to the United States, my brother had visited me from Minnesota. My first shopping spree was 2 shorts , few t shirts that my brother bought me from Walmart and shoes from Payless . It was a small city in Iowa and Super Walmart was the only big thing there, and till date I vividly remember as to how overjoyed I was. I thanked my brother like gazillion times and was super excited to don my Walmart outfit. Through the years, I waited tables in a Punjabi restaurant, worked in Taco bell, booth in the mall and every time I bought stuff in sale, I felt accomplished- the kind of joy that was incomprehensible. I was a poor undergrad student that was juggling between a full time blue collar job and acing my exams yet I was happy. The only pain, I felt during those days was if the library was packed and my favorite spot was taken. The only hunger I had was to study and to prove my worth. I did just that, I graduated Summa Cum Laude as one of the toppers of my graduating class. My hard work paid off and I beamed at myself with pride. After that when I landed my first corporate job, you would think I was the happiest, but if I were to look back that is when it all started. My millennial syndrome, my materialistic outlook and being dissatisfied with everything. With my first salary, I bought myself a Michael Kors watch and a purse, that was a big thing back then, of course i was proud but was that enough? Nope, I went and hoarded for more and more through the years until I had sunglasses, watches and purses of every color. Well did that make me happy? Nope! because my greed knew no bound. My thoughts wandered like " Its 2014 and no one likes MK, it has to be Kate Spade", or, well Kate spade is so overrated , oh I need something else. I could not wait for 7 days to receive it- Great!!Amazon prime happened-the next best thing in my life. Look at that teeth whitening kit in Group-on its $7 , I definitely need that, or that Beats is on sale for $100, i mean $10 headphone is nothing like Beats by Dr. Dre. It plays music yes but its not hip at all, yadda yadda yadda ...just like that I became a slave of consumerism. I asked myself again, Arjabi are you happy? Nope! I was driving $1000 97 Pontiac Sun fire with no AC in blazing Texas heat in 2008 with a wide spread smile on my face yet 2016 Audi Q3 still made me feel like oh no may be I should have gotten a Q5 with sports feature . Well I don't know when I will ever be able to use the sports feature in Cali with that traffic but I needed it anyways just because I can now. The pivotal point in my life was when the tax return summary came back for 2016. What I see was 6 figured salary summary yet my savings was negligible. I had not taken vacation in 2 years. I had not laughed heartily since don't know when. When I was making 5 figures or even less, I was happier, proud and content. Then I took matters to my hand, I de-cluttered my closet, I closed my alternate checking accounts, I cancelled few of my subscription , I cancelled my kindle subscription, I mean I still like my paperbacks, What do I need kindle subscription for? So I have taken baby steps from the beginning of this year. With the amount I save up this year, I plan on going for vacations. I would rather spend money on creating memories. I don't mind being called stingy from this point forward because I now know being frugal is the way to go- after all my favorite person of all times Benjamin Franklin was a penny pincher and ended up being the founding fathers of this great nation and master mind behind Declaration of Independence. I promise to laugh more often and be happy. In this faraway land, I live with my parents, husband, my sister and my two dogs; my brothers, friends and other families are a call away. We have a roof to live in, good food to eat and lots of love, if that is not going to make a millennial happy I don't know what will. This is a year, I will learn to change my frowns to frolics, my greed to greatness and my measure of happiness shall be what I already have rather than what I need. It is high time for us millennials to stop being frantic about things we can't control. Its time for us to stop treating price tags as our happiness,its high time for us to value real relationships. Its high time for us to get out of our shell and enjoy what we love to do. I like taking pictures and sharing my fitness journey well that is what I will do. We are the generation, that saw best of both worlds-we saw floppy discs and now we are the consumers of nano technology. We live in the world of automation, and we don't have to churn half as much as our parents did yet we are too loud, too proud,too obnoxious and too disrespectful. We tend to take everything for granted. We are the generation that is spoon fed yet can't stop complaining. We tend to dwell on petty matters and not see a bigger, fuller , invigorating picture that is ahead of us. We have forgotten to be jubilant and boisterous and cheeky and not to take ourselves too seriously. Thus it is time for us to join hands and say thank you that we are alive in the greatest time of all. We don't live in war torn Syria, we are not beheaded for not covering our heads, we have freedom of speech, we have aspirations and means to achieve them -Trust me we have it easy. Our windows are rock solid for no rock can shatter it. Our vantage point is much clearer and the glare of uncertainty has relinquished. So lets not waste our lives in sea of uncertainty. Let us not dwell on petty things. Let us learn to be happy and love ourselves, for we are worth it. ~Dedicated to Millennials like me My tale , my words, my life I share with thee!