Entering your 20s brings with it a host of new experiences and big decisions marking entrance into adulthood.  From choosing a major or finding a job, dating, or deciding whether or not to go to graduate school, we are faced with choices.

Although every person experiences the transition into adulthood differently, it’s no question that our generation is facing this transition during a time different from any other. The upside? The Millennials (those of us born after 1980) are more optimistic, expressive and educated than any generation preceding us. Here’s my list of the top number things to be excited about as a 20-something in 2012:

We’re connected everywhere at all times, At no other time has it been easier to stay in touch with people across the country and around the world. With the release of new social networking tools our generation is able to keep in touch with friends, families and people we knew in kindergarten more easily than ever before. We can look at and follow to people across the world through Skype and can be updated about someone’s every move on Twitter. Connectivity has changed the way we communicate across all facets of our lives. Not only does our generation have access to most of the information under the sun, we also have the ability to express and communicate our ideas and opinions in a visible way.

We’re not in a dying job market, just a different one. Obviously all the talk about the difficulty of getting a job can be extremely discouraging. There’s been increasing pressure to choose “practical” majors in order to ensure a spot in the competitive job market. Although industries are changing, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s less value in studying something “impractical” in college. With changing markets and industries come new opportunities for entrepreneurship, which is fed by the creative thinking that these majors cultivate. Millennials should embrace the creativity characteristic of our generation to welcome the jobs of the future.

We think globally. Because our generation has been given the tools to connect and communicate globally, Millennials are attuned to think this way. Being able to think and communicate in a global way means that our generation is willing to collaborate and share with people all over the world. We’re more aware of what’s going on in the rest of the world and how our actions affect and are affected by the global community.

We have technology our parents never even dreamed of. Just think about the number of times you check your Facebook each day, or how lost you would be without the GPS app on your iPhone. Our generation has access to the technologies that make our lives easier in many ways. We can email, text, or call someone at any time, or make dinner reservations online. Our generation is continuously exposed to tools that remove much of the grunt work our parents once had to deal with.

We are heavily invested in education  Not only are there more first-generation college students than ever before, but there’s also more diversity in education and the workplace. Women and minorities are working in industries previously unavailable to them and bringing with them new ideas and fresh perspectives. More brain power means more opportunities for creativity and growth, both in industry and elsewhere.

Without a doubt, Millennials are experiencing the 20-something transition at a time when things are changing pretty drastically. Because things are changing in unprecedented ways, the ways in which we deal with things are bound to be different. Although scary, this is a time in which things are changing in exciting ways, and we’ll be the ones responsible for changing the definitions of everything from communication to the modern makeup of society.

Brooke Berger is a junior in the College. She can be reached at [email protected]. THE 20-SOMETHING TRANSITION appears every other Friday in the guide.