And probably the worst piece of advice we were given was that we should wait to have children until our mid to late 30s. 

Millennials took a lot of this advice to heart and many scrambled to get expensive degrees that ended up being useless, working longer hours than any generation alive today and torpedoing the "lazy millennial" stereotype, all while doing so in a saturated corporate job market. Luckily, millennials are as resourceful as they are innovative and they've used the internet to their advantage in pretty creative ways. 

But a lot of the events millennials experienced coming of age and the arrival of the internet with its effect on the human species created a generation that's locked in a sense of arrested development. 

As Gen-X was tasked by fate to oversee the transition of humanity from analog to digital, millennials were tasked to oversee humanity's evolution into a globally connected species. Only a section of my generation knows or remembers what an offline world looks like, a world I was lucky to experience for at least a little while. We bore the brunt of the shock that the effects of humanity being connected in such a way brought on. 

We probably won't understand the full effect the internet had on humanity for a couple of hundred years when we can look back on and study it in full, but one of the side effects has been very obvious. Anxiety is higher than ever, and no wonder. Millennials were the first generation to be watched all the time by their peers. Humanity wasn't yet aware of the addictive nature of social media and how it would affect our psyche as well as our relationships. It added a type of stress to the youthful mind that other generations hadn't had to experience and no one knew how to deal with it. 

This was uncharted territory. Millennials had to brave that new world on their own and forging a safer path for new generations was up to them.

In a way, this took something from our youth and you can see the ways millennials are trying to hold onto it. 

For instance, Millennials are easily nostalgia-baited. Corporations found that you can get a millennial to shell out their cash, get a click, or secure some watch time by repackaging something they loved in their youth and selling it to them again. Of course, this often results in angry millennials cursing the bastardization of what they loved with the injection of modernity, but that's a different article. 

You can also see it in the popularity of the "DINK" lifestyle. "DINK" is an acronym for "Double Income, No Kids." It's an increasingly popular lifestyle choice by millennials. The idea is that a couple, both with stable jobs, will hold off on or forego children altogether in order to focus on themselves and their relationship. It's an undeniably selfish way to live and shortsighted to boot. 

As a millennial who followed the "wait till you're older to have kids" advice, this is a bad idea. Youth is a great tool to have to raise up youth, and there are times when raising my young son when I feel my age...and he's not even walking yet. But, this was the advice we were given and like many a youth, I trusted the wisdom of my elders. 

But behind the DINK lifestyle is the horror of losing that youth that millennials are somewhat desperate to hold onto. A youth that they feel they weren't fully able to experience naturally. As an elder millennial, I can say with some certainty that a DINK lifestyle and all the nostalgia indulgence in the world aren't going to delay the inevitable. 

To my younger millennial brothers and sisters, I have a warning. You're getting older. Your youth is gone. Your time is limited. True longevity doesn't come from vacations and expensive dinners. It doesn't come from wealth or the finer things. There will be no grand archway you walk through that indicates your transition from young adult to middle age. You will one day wake up and be there. You might even be there now and you just haven't realized it yet. 

Don't fool yourself. True longevity comes from children, not new and exciting restaurants. Alone on your deathbed, you won't wish you'd binged more Netflix or ordered more Uber Eats. Settle down. Get married. Have children. Don't worry about the cost. The cost of not having any is much higher. 

There's a recently released song from the post-grunge era band BUSH that drives this point home called "Nowhere to Go But Everywhere." The song centers around the horror of being removed further and further from the glory days of youth. The song, aside from being very catchy, is a sad one but in it, Rossdale has a great warning. 

Never put your life on hold
Better swim against the tide
Than drown yourself in a sea of lies

The word Rossdale sings over and over again throughout the song is "Impermanence."

In the interview about the song, Rossdale unpacks his thoughts further.

“While anyone can identify with clinging to the past which the song addresses, the extremes we’ve seen some people go to for external youth is unnerving,” Rossdale says. “It is a drag watching your own face age – and yet as, David Bowie said, ‘The thing about aging is you become the person you should have been all along.’ — genius. And feels true.” 

BUSH backs up their song with visuals. In the music video, Rossdale is brought to a de-aging facility where a new technology allows for the reversal of age. Rossdale tells the mad scientist to age him back 30 years, and for a time, Rossdale wears the face you recognized from the 90s. But it's clear that there is no going back and Rossdale's youth sloughs off bloodily and quickly as the mad scientist who took his money makes a break for it. The lesson is clear. 

You can't escape time. 

Time is like a horror movie monster. You can run all you want, but it's always behind you no matter how slowly it seems to move. It's terrifying and only gets more terrifying the longer you're in its realm. The key is to not see it as a monster, but as your constant companion bringing you to, as Bowie said, the you you're supposed to be. 

Aging isn't Plan B. You're doing it. 

Embrace your impermenance. Have children. You'll find youth and purpose in them, not yourself. Youth is not yours to hold onto.