CAN'T EVEN: HOW MILLENIALS BECAME THE BURNOUT GENERATION by Anne Helen Peterson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Some days, there’s a ball of indescribable anxiety and exhaustion lingering somewhere inside my chest. Like there’s no way to move forward, that it’s too late to go back. Do I hate my job, or hate working in general? Is it just imposter syndrome, psyching myself up and out for an inevitable situation I’m not prepared for? Do my coworkers and bosses think I’m a fuck-up, or do I just need the affirmation that they like me?

Questions and doubts and dread. That dark introspection doesn’t always work its way to the surface, but its weight is constantly present. And adding to the commotion is retelling myself that my millennial burnout situation is mild compared to others’.

If any of this strikes a familiar chord, or just sounds like classic millennial whining, read this book.

Within the first few pages, I saw my life reflected back at me. Revelations and correlations stood out from beginning to end, some shocking me in the way I almost can’t believe someone has pieced this puzzle together for us. I don’t think the book sets out to say “It’s not our fault!” most of our generation feels this way, but it does appropriately spread the blame to our parents, THEIR parents, the economy, the climate, the political atmosphere, work culture, and the breakdown that has shifted them all in a dangerous direction, favoring the few and clouding the meaning of middle-class. We’re part of a system of change, and our relationship with ‘adulting’ is proof that that change may not be for the better.

It’s a bit of a rollercoaster to read, equal parts frustrating and sad and enlightening, and by the end (at least for me), surprisingly hopeful and helpful. Discovering explanations for these feelings unmasked what I thought was a solo problem, and understanding why the hell we’re the way we are makes getting out of the funk — or lessening its hold — actually possible. For a generation of achievers who were told they could do anything, that’s speaking our language.