In fact, a better question for this article may well be, what do others think your personal freedom should be?

Something has been on my mind of late questions about the new generation that seems to be doing everything wrong and giving all the other "good ones" a really bad rap.

I think this is caused by something far more local then most of us are willing to admit. I don't mean Camden or Narellan or any kind of geographical co-ordinate.

My "local" means my life, my own personal experience of the world and its people. This experience is shaped by so many factors that it would take a massive book to detail them all. You are the same. Your experience and personality is just as local to yourself as mine is to myself.

Does this mean we get to dictate our own life according to the rules that we make up for ourselves?

Should I dye my hair blue on the morning of a job interview? After all, I would only be acting within my own self-constructed authority, right?

I could do that, yes. But that chances are that my prospective employer may consider me a tad too "out there" and unable to match the desirable criteria for the job.

So then what do we do? What stops us from looking "out there" and causing havoc because we simply do not like the rules that govern us? If it's all up to us, why should we care?

Well, here it is, I will tell you all the secrets to our generation Y existence.

You may not like or think it too damn conventional and moralistic to consider applicable to yourself, but here it goes.

Get over it.

Yeah I know, it sucks. It can all suck sometimes: the pressures of identity, employment, family, relationships, education. Sometimes there is so much pressure from every conceivable aspect of your life that it really does seem that you have no say in anything. I know this because it has been my experience. Many people are misled to believe that giving up and leading a life of social complacency is the only way out, as if this is some kind of revolutionary gesture. But it's the complete opposite.

We have a role in history that allows us to carve out our own paths within the overriding structures. Why should we shrink form such an awesome opportunity? The pressure will always be there, but you are the one in control of it, you can make it work for you. So do it. Understand that it will hurt sometimes and it's frustrating and the world cannot change because you don't like it. Deal with it, then work through it.