Generation Y
I was reading an article in relevant magazine and it was talking about how ours (roughly people currently in their 20’s and 30’s, or gen Y as we are being called) is an ironic generation. We do things because people don’t expect us to. We drink boxed wine, we only like music if no one has heard of the band, our hipsters wear a strange conglomeration of fashion stolen from past generations, and we have lost hope in the systems and administrations that have failed us and our parents so many times in the past. When we have a generation of faithless people, we are bound to be a lost and struggling people without goals. From what I have seen, we have so many of our generation (myself included) sitting not knowing what to dream for in the future we see as bleak and distant.
From a young age we have been acquainted with fear. Desert storm started when I was very young, the Oklahoma bombing soon followed. We are the generation that will always be remembered for September 11th, global terrorism, and technological advancement. When our lives started out so bleak when is it time for us to look for the light, to see the hope in a bleak economy, a broken governmental system, and a weak education system. We can’t finish school because financial aid isn’t working for us, and when we finish the job market is so bleak we have to work at Wal-mart.
On the flip side, we are also a generation of advocates. We start protests against war and human trafficking. We go to remote locations to feed the poor. We are a new generation of peace corps volunteers. Where some of us are seeing the dark and bleak landscape of the future of America, the rest of us are seeing the sun rise on the horizon. It is rising so slowly that you have to crane your neck to see the rays of light peaking from behind the concrete jungle.
We are a generation that is finding our way back to nature, and do it yourself culture. If a store doesn’t have what we want we will make it ourselves. We are resourceful, trying to find the beauty in the scarred world that we were given. We find the sweet and sour poetry in emerging counter cultures we have created for ourselves. Pigeon holing ourselves so we can “fit in”.
I wonder what future generations will say about us. Will they say we mended the world, put sutures in the heart of the country, just trying to hear it beat again? Or will they say that we contributed in the breaking down of personal communication, the family system, and the loneliness of the human condition. I am not trying to preach, or get you into a political frenzy. I just want to lend my voice to the maddening crowd and show that there is hope in our futures. Our children and grandchildren can live in a better world if we get involved. I’m not saying you have to run for office, or even finish school to contribute to this better world. Plant a flower, write a poem, or just take a day without your phone and computer and actually enjoy the silence without the hum of technology. We can make this world better and stronger. We can change the systems that have disappointed us, and we can show that there is beauty left. Our future doesn’t have to be bleak and hopeless. Be filled with hope for a better tomorrow, because you are working for it, because you are contributing to the mending of our world.
From a young age we have been acquainted with fear. Desert storm started when I was very young, the Oklahoma bombing soon followed. We are the generation that will always be remembered for September 11th, global terrorism, and technological advancement. When our lives started out so bleak when is it time for us to look for the light, to see the hope in a bleak economy, a broken governmental system, and a weak education system. We can’t finish school because financial aid isn’t working for us, and when we finish the job market is so bleak we have to work at Wal-mart.
On the flip side, we are also a generation of advocates. We start protests against war and human trafficking. We go to remote locations to feed the poor. We are a new generation of peace corps volunteers. Where some of us are seeing the dark and bleak landscape of the future of America, the rest of us are seeing the sun rise on the horizon. It is rising so slowly that you have to crane your neck to see the rays of light peaking from behind the concrete jungle.
We are a generation that is finding our way back to nature, and do it yourself culture. If a store doesn’t have what we want we will make it ourselves. We are resourceful, trying to find the beauty in the scarred world that we were given. We find the sweet and sour poetry in emerging counter cultures we have created for ourselves. Pigeon holing ourselves so we can “fit in”.
I wonder what future generations will say about us. Will they say we mended the world, put sutures in the heart of the country, just trying to hear it beat again? Or will they say that we contributed in the breaking down of personal communication, the family system, and the loneliness of the human condition. I am not trying to preach, or get you into a political frenzy. I just want to lend my voice to the maddening crowd and show that there is hope in our futures. Our children and grandchildren can live in a better world if we get involved. I’m not saying you have to run for office, or even finish school to contribute to this better world. Plant a flower, write a poem, or just take a day without your phone and computer and actually enjoy the silence without the hum of technology. We can make this world better and stronger. We can change the systems that have disappointed us, and we can show that there is beauty left. Our future doesn’t have to be bleak and hopeless. Be filled with hope for a better tomorrow, because you are working for it, because you are contributing to the mending of our world.
No comments:
Post a Comment