X & Y

A friend, born during the Martial law era, told me I was lucky to be born in the 90s. As he lamented, his generation has no identity-they were too young to actually realize the Marcos regime and the first people power was more of a holiday for them.

I then asked, but you call yourselves Generation X right? That signifies something. You were the children of parliamentary. The last of those with ideas of fascism and a government banning Voltes V thinking it would lead to revolution. We don't have that crazy laws now.

He said it was nothing. The children of the war were deemed to be the best generation, those that followed after were the baby boomers, which gave birth to my generation. His, according to him, was never tainted with such important event that will distinguish his generation- they were raised restraint from a lot of things and when they had the the opportunity to be mature, there were no more cause to fight for- no more evil empire to fight, no more Eureka moment to actually find fulfillment.

I rested my case. But then it bothered me, aside from being called the Y Generation, was there anything I could exclusively attribute to my generation that would stop me from going back to the conversation I had above.

You have the internet, he said.

Yeah, if you're from some first world country. Here, I guess my generation share with the Millennium babies the credit for that. And I thought of my 10 year-old sister playing Pet Society.

You have Jolina, he laughed. I thought he was right, at least the standard on how you perceive a jologs from one who is not came from the days we cheer for Judy Ann and Wowie.

In my mind, I can actually think of different factors that would differentiate my generation from that of the others. There are the various scandals and economic crisis that marked what our country is now; the boom of Monica Brava and Meteor Garden and Power Ranger; globalization and digital innovation to name a few. But to think of those as the defining identity of our generation has not yet caught my mind. We didn't have John Hughes. The Beatles and the Smiths are played on tape, with no possibility of seeing live. The evil sought now is different from that of the early years.

At least Gen X and Y cultures are not disposable. What we have will last and will always be a part of us, no matter what. I told him while we sip the last of our coffee.

We laughed.

God, can you imagine kids today talking about Kim Chiu after ten years? I bet they wouldn't even remember her. At least we have Julie Vega before, he boasted.