Believe it or not, we are nearly half way through the current decade.  By now, most of the Millennial’s have graduated from college, started their occupations or are just graduating high school. 

During the first decade of the new millennium, we were growing into our young adulthood and now we are actually growing up. 

Since the 2000’s have now been over for almost five years, it is interesting to look back at the past decade. It was the first full decade that I was alive and for others around my age, the 2000’s were the decade in which we made a cultural impact, at least in entertainment. 

After looking back at my years in the 2000’s, it began to dawn on me that the 2010’s have become an extension of the previous decade and seems to be lacking its own originality and cultural impact other decades made before us. 

The 1970’s were arguably a huge influential period in American popular culture, from disco to awareness of social issues to the rise of television programming. 

1980’s brought us some of the most unique fashion trends and became the birth of pop music, giving us artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince.

The 1990’s served as the decade of rebellion between the grunge clothing and some of the best alternative music of all time. 

The 2000’s brought us some great moments, such as the rise of social media, the digitalization of music and an outstanding growth in technology, but it seems most of the problems of the 2000’s have carried over into the 2010’s. 

The Middle East is still in the midst of complete chaos, the global economy has yet to recover from the crash of 2008 and Lindsay Lohan is still in and out of rehab. 

Music has gradually become more electronic, but most pop music today seems disposable and there hasn’t been a new breakout of an original genre that has taken over our musical landscape.  

People still unfortunately wear some of the tragic fashion trends of the 2000’s, such as crocs and branded logo t-shirts, but at least the trucker cap and fedora fads from the 2000’s were left behind. 

This is our decade, Millennials. Do we want future generations to look back at us as a generation of creativity and originality or do we only want to be remembered as a generation that embraced scantily clad girls who twerked and sang about having a big booty?

Lizzie McGuire is now a mom, the original Play Station has long been replaced, “Mean Girls” is 10 years old and the Kardashians are still unfortunately relevant.

The world is lacking originality and it is our time to shine. So let the next generation enjoy lackluster pop music and poor television programming, we have a responsibility to set the bar for the next decade. 

We are already making social progress with the legalization of gay marriage and marijuana becoming more prevalent within the United States and it seems our economy is on track to fully recover by the end of the decade, but the old policies of the past could come back to haunt us. 

We need to shoot for the stars and think outside of the box, in order to make the 2010’s one of the most memorable decades of the century. As our childhood icon Buzz Lightyear said, “To infinity and beyond!”