Can Generation X Be Saved?

I’m part of the lost generation. Or is it invisible? Forgotten? Nah—literally and figuratively, Generation X is just lost.

That’s the way it was meant to be, apparently.

The Baby Boomers came before us. The Millennials came after. Both outnumber us.

Evidently Americans didn’t procreate as much between 1965 and 1980?

So our collective voice was always destined to be quieter. And that was the beginning of the end.

When we were growing up, divorce was spiking. So were two-income homes—homes that were empty, at least when we got home from school. That’s why they called us latchkey kids. In other words, we didn’t have helicopter parents—they were more like Matchbox cars. And when we were home alone, we weren’t practicing adulting.

We watched TV, like MTV. We ate crap food that was advertised as healthy, or at least non-toxic. And as we got older, we developed a preferred coping mechanism.

It wasn’t mindfulness. And it definitely wasn’t yoga. It started with binge and ended with drinking. For some, alcohol was the least of their problems.

We had a certain disdain for society. We looked around, observed our surroundings, and were in no rush to join.

That sentiment was captured in our music. And man, did we have some great musicians.

Like Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

Layne Staley of Alice In Chains.

Chris Cornell (technically a Boomer by six months) of Soundgarden.

Sinéad O’Connor.

Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries.

Chester Bennington of Linkin Park.

Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon.

Bradley Nowell of Sublime.

Tupac Shakur.

The Notorious B.I.G.

Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots.

Kristen Pfaff of Hole.

They’re all dead.

Even our movies—and actors—were depressed.

Remember The Breakfast Club?

Or the aptly-titled Reality Bites?

Along the way, we grew up with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Nicole Smith, River Phoenix, Heath Ledger, and Brittany Murphy.

They’re all dead, too.

In the political arena, when it was our moment to shine, the country elected a Boomer, then an older-than-Boomer, and then the first Boomer again. When it came time to start grooming the next generation (i.e. choose a vice president), we were bypassed in favor of a Millennial.

Apparently, we’ve done quite well in the tech world though. Anything that involves escaping reality and/or a sweatshirt is right up our alley.

So yes, Generation X has in many ways been lost.

But the invisibility, that’s been by choice.

And there’s no way this batch will be forgotten.

Because the X has always been an unknown, a desire to not be defined by anyone else.

And those of us who’ve stuck around are now perfectly suited to start defining ourselves—in our independent, disaffected, see-through-the-bullsh*t, utterly genuine sort of way.