by Sarah Reynolds
So, one day we’ll all
grow up and move on from here… right? I mean, it’s not like how we act in the
here and now is going to have any major effect on what happens afterward. This
place is just a stepping stone, we’re still young, and so we deserve to have as
much fun as possible, and if anything isn’t fun we should just quit… right?
Wrong.
This is the view that
society has placed into the hearts and minds of this rising generation. My
generation. We are expected to behave and think in ways that would make
innocents cringe, but hey, we’re just teens right? Kids will be kids, after
all.
I’m here to tell you
that’s not the case. We are worth so much more, and capable of so much more
than this culture gives us credit for as young people.
We can write, draw,
sculpt, sing, research, perform science experiments, build anything from robots
to bookshelves, dance to the beat of our own drums; we can move, speak,
encourage, work, save, invest, learn, and form our own opinions. But
that’s not what we hear from the media.
“Embrace your fear of
commitment”
“Live for Now”
These are from two
different ad campaigns, both angling toward the teens and 20's crowd. Just two
of the thousands of advertisements we see each day. This isn’t even going
into all the ones angled at girls telling them how they need to change their
bodies to look better, or the ones angled at guys telling them they need to do
this or that to be successful.
It seems like everything
in this culture focuses on looking good, being powerful, making it big… and yet
things that can get you there (hard work, direction, focus, good priorities)
are mocked and belittled, while things that can get in the way of you going far
(drugs, alcohol, careless sex, laziness) are overly glorified and quite frankly
overrated.
We are expected to party because “kids will be kids” but what
does that ever really do for us? When was the last time someone who made
something of themselves said, “I got to where I am today because of all those
drunken nights in college” or “I am successful because I dated every girl in junior high”? Can you show me even one example?
The truth is, those
things don’t fulfill us, and they never will. They aren’t what makes us strong,
and they won’t create beauty or power in us. However, they will have an effect
on our future, despite what the culture we live in may say.
We live in the age of
social media. People could, at any time, take a picture or video of you doing
all these things and post it anywhere they’d like. They can find you years
later and cause a nightmare. Words out of your mouth can go so quickly, and
reach the people you’d hoped they’d never reach, before you can stop or even
begin to control it. Everything you have ever done is at your future
employers fingertips should they know how to get it (and generally they do).
So, this all makes me call
into question the original assumption at the beginning of this whole thing: why
is this society so insistent that things like drugs, alcohol, and partying the
years away don’t matter at all?
What truth is being
hidden? If it really doesn’t matter or have a negative effect, why do we live
in a society where suicide is the third leading cause of death in teens? Why are
people in their 20's and 30's, who appear to have it all, still feeling empty and
deeply craving something more than what they have?
What are we missing?
