As a millennial in my twenties, from 2008 until 2018, it became my pursuit to speak with the G.I. Generation. In researching Millennials, I discovered a group of people known as Xennials. I am one of the oldest Millennials, or I could be part of the Xennials.

I was on a mission to speak with as many people who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in and/or experienced WWII as I could. I spoke with people in their upper eighties and nineties and even people who were one hundred years old or older. What could this G.I. Generation teach me, a millennial, and what could I tell generation Z that the G.I. generation taught me?

When someone from a younger generation asks his superiors questions, he learns stories. The astonishing part was when I spoke with people from the WWII generation; some of them told me stories about their grandparents. Their grandparents lived through the Civil War and they told the members of the G.I. generation stories about what it was like during the Civil War. There I was living in the 21st century and in the midst of a story, I heard someone’s personal account from the days of the Civil War. History that seemed so far removed was actually just a few stories away. The elderly person with whom I was speaking passed on a story to me that his/her grandparent told him/her from the days of the Civil War.