KRAKOW, POLAND — If Scott Nicholson’s story defines life as a millennial then I’m embarrassed to include myself among his generational peers.

Nicholson is the subject of a recent New York Times article titled, “American Dream Is Elusive for New Generation.” The crux of the story is simple enough. Nicolson, a recent college graduate, has spent the past five months searching for a job. When a job offer at a local insurance company finally materializes, he turns it down. Apparently a $40,000 starting salary equates to “dead-end work” in the tragic life of Scott Nicolson.

Instead of taking the job, Nicholson continues his search for a “corporate position” that would put him on the “bottom rungs of a career ladder.” In the meantime, he continues to live with his parents, who cover his room and board, health insurance premiums and even his cell phone bill. This might explain the ease at which he turned down the job offer.

Yet what concerns me most about the article isn’t Nicolson’s narcissistic sense of entitlement or even his naïve optimism. Sadly enough, both are defining characteristics of the millennial generation.

What I found most disheartening was a quote by Lisa B. Kahn, an economist at the Yale School of Management. According to Kahn, millennials are “definitely more risk-averse” than their parents and grandparents were at our age, a claim she supports in a recent study.

Nicolson fits into the article’s narrative so perfectly that it’s a wonder any exception could exist. Are millennials really a bunch of stay-at-home, nothing’s-ever-good-enough wimps?

Not if you ask A.J. Goldmann.

Goldmann, a freelance journalist and recent college graduate, lives and works in Berlin. Though he supplements his freelancing career by guiding tours and performing monthly stand-up comedy, he’s happy there. He’s even found time to work on his first novel.

Of course Goldmann could hsve found a job back home or applied for graduate schools as his parents had encouraged. But he had grown restless in New York City, where he had spent his entire life. After spending a previous summer in Berlin completing research for his thesis, he was yearning for an excuse to go back.