80s Baby or 90s Raised?

 The Debate That Turned Into a Reflection on Identity...

There are some conversations that start light and somehow end up teaching you something deeper about yourself.

This week’s discussion in our house was simple on the surface:
Can someone born in 1974 really call themselves a “90s baby”?

Mr. Green stood firm in his belief that musically, culturally, and in life, the 90s shaped him so heavily that he identifies with that era deeply. Meanwhile, I looked at him with complete confusion because in my mind, if you were almost 20 years old in the 90s… how are you calling yourself a baby of that decade?

Now me?
Born May 1, 1982.
I absolutely consider myself an 80s baby because I was literally a child during that time. To me, that made sense.

But the more we talked, the more I realized we weren’t actually debating dates.
We were debating influence.

And honestly, that changed the entire conversation.

Because maybe identity is not always rooted in where something started.
Sometimes it’s rooted in where something shaped you the most.

The truth is, many of us were introduced to one environment but transformed in another.

Some people were born into survival but shaped by healing.
Some were raised in fear but later formed through faith.
Some spent years becoming the version of themselves they were always meant to be.

And maybe that’s why this small conversation stayed with me.

It made me think about how often we try to define people—and ourselves—by technicalities instead of transformation.

Mr. Green may not technically be a “90s baby,” but I understand what he was trying to say:
The 90s impacted him deeply.
The music, the culture, the freedom, the life experiences—those years became part of his identity.

And if I’m honest, I think we all do this in some way.

We connect ourselves to the seasons that awakened us.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says:
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

Some seasons birth us.
Other seasons build us.

And wisdom is understanding the difference.

What I also realized is that people often want language for the version of themselves that felt most alive. Sometimes that’s not the decade they were born in. Sometimes it’s the decade they discovered themselves.

That perspective softened me a little.

Not because I changed my stance entirely—I still believe an 80s baby is someone born in the 80s—but because I could see the heart behind what he meant.

And maybe that’s important too.

Sometimes understanding matters more than winning the debate.

This reflection reminded me how often we speak from experience while someone else is speaking from emotion. Both can be valid, but they are not always saying the same thing.

At The Green Rose Experience, I’ve been learning that awareness changes how we listen.
It changes how we respond.
It changes how we see people.

Not everything has to become an argument.
Some conversations are invitations to understand perspective more deeply.

So now I’m curious…

Do you identify more with the decade you were born in?
Or the decade that shaped you?

Because those are not always the same thing.

And maybe both tell part of the story.

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CTA:
If this reflection spoke to you, share it with someone who loves a good generational debate—or someone who helped shape the era of your life that changed you most.

Join the conversation at The Green Rose Experience, where awareness, growth, faith, and real-life reflections meet. 🌹

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