This is why millennials never want to grow up

Buzzfeed ran a story a few weeks ago about a bar in London that has a ball pit in the basement. Adult coloring books top the Amazon best-sellers list, and there are camps for adults in Brooklyn. Last semester, Princeton University’s Mathey College held puppy study breaks to help students de-stress. It’s clear that the millennial generation does not want to grow up.

Even our vocabulary reveals our disdain for growing up. “Adulting” is a versatile verb we use to describe boring or responsibility-laden activities, such as paying taxes, cooking dinner, or even doing laundry (since apparently kids don’t do laundry). It’s our way of saying that growing up is an undesirable thing to have to do.

Some have blamed this Peter Pan phenomenon on millennials as the coddled generation. Others say it’s a sign that millennials enjoy fun and care less about social norms than previous generations. Neither story is complete. The real reason we don’t want to grow up? Our generation is watching as the “real” adult world goes to crap due to mistakes of older generations — and we want none of it.

We’re the first generation that will have a lower standard of living than our parents. We collectively have $1.3 trillion of student debt, largely due to the cost of college increasing by 1,100 percent in the last 30 years.

The climate is a mess. Even the more optimistic models call for significant warming by 2050, as well as stronger storms, harsher droughts, and rising seas. And we’ve just elected a president who thinks climate change is a myth.

The adult world is a depressing place, and the sad state of current affairs isn’t our generation’s fault. We’re tired of fighting fights that should have been settled for decades. Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973, but we’re still having to fight laws that restrict a woman’s right to choose. The Civil Rights Act was signed into law over 50 years ago, but basic civil rights are still sadly lacking for many people of color.

Can you really blame millennials for wanting ball pits and coloring books? The world is going to hell, and it feels like there’s nothing we can do about it. Maybe some of this is just false perception created by a constant stream of negative news, pressuring us to give up and pretend that we will never need to grow up.

But millennials are the largest generation in America. We are the future, and Princeton students are supposed to be the future leaders — we can’t stay in Neverland forever. So take your puppy study break. Enjoy some quality time at an adult playground. But don’t forget that it’s our job to be responsible adults some of the time. Because we certainly can’t trust the current “adults” to get us on the right path.