Boston Gal's Open Wallet

I could rattle off countless other instances of friends and acquaintances who have done similar hopscotching; which more often than not has included forays into different industries, various types of employment (temp, part-time, salaried, etc.), and often a period spent pursuing a nontraditional opportunity (volunteer work, an artistic interest, travel). And there are those like me who have done all of the above.

I realize that we "millennials" are often derided as coddled, entitled, carefree job-hoppers who are loathe to settle down, preferring to indulge in a prolonged adolescence of sorts. The journalists and academics who chronicle us focus on where this inability to settle down comes from. They contend that it's not a manifestation of youthful rebellion but the result of being raised by helicopter parents, whose constant hovering and hand-holding has gone on long beyond our adolescence.

While I won't argue with their view of how we were raised, I don't think that style of upbringing has led to the baseless sense of entitlement that we are often accused of. We're taking our time settling down professionally not because we're lazy or noncommittal: In fact, we're just the opposite.