Gen X: Middle Child of History

Unglamorous, indispensable, and slightly caffeinated — how Gen X holds the world together

Gen X: the duct tape generation. We’re the ones with one foot in a nursing-home waiting room and the other on a PlayStation controller, trying to stop the whole damn thing from falling apart. We got saddled with Boomers who insist they invented breathing and Gen Z who think the internet is their birthright and customer service. Somewhere between the rotary phone and the smartphone, we became the emergency contact for civilization.

Boomers shout from their lawn chairs about how they built everything with grit and elbow grease — except when it comes to Google, where suddenly “the young people” are ruining grammar and not saving the planet. Meanwhile, Gen Z strolls in with the confidence of someone who downloaded adulthood from an app and can’t understand why life doesn’t come with an update. They want meaning, justice, and an eco-friendly latte that won’t hurt their aura — right now, preferably in twelve easy installments.

And there we are: Gen X, the middle children of history. We’re the unpaid tech support, the "sandwich generation", the travel agents for medical insurance, the ones who explain passwords and politics without getting canceled. We teach our parents how to swipe, then teach our kids how to think. We refinance mortgages so our parents can retire comfortably and our kids can maybe afford rent if they cancel one streaming service. We RSVP “maybe” to family drama and “definitely” to existential crisis.

We’re also the ones who remember mixtapes and memes, who can fix a leaky sink and reinstall an operating system without crying — at least not until the third cup of coffee. We keep the beams bolted while the top floor remodels itself and the foundation files taxes online. It’s messy, thankless, and sometimes we wish we’d taken that job selling life insurance instead.

But here’s the secret: while every generation thinks it’s the point, it’s Gen X that’s quietly holding the seams. We’re the bridge, the middle managers of humanity, the people who keep the lights on while everyone else argues about who deserves the credit for flipping the switch. So salute the unlabeled, the under-celebrated — Gen X is tired, sure, but also oddly indispensable. Pass the duct tape.