8. This is for my generation—a generation of hate, a generation that’s scared. This is for my generation—a generation called lazy, a generation called me. This is for my generation—a generation that is ready for change but is told it can do nothing. We are belittled and made to think we can’t change anything. This is for my generation, raised by hate and prejudice. This is for my generation that was taught greed and institutional racism. Yet, here we are. Teenagers and young adults determine to change the world.
When we read books as children, they were fantasies. We’re the Potterheads and the Shadow Hunters. We read Eragon and Tolkien. As children, we believed in a world filled with magic. As adults, we read dystopian novels, novels that reflect what we now believe and see. We no longer believe in magic; instead, we think we’ll all be ruled by a totalitarian government. We’re frightened by what we see day in and day out.
As children, we listened to our elders. We believed what the teachers and parents told us. We pledged allegiance to an inanimate object and believed that the government would always protect us. And as we got older, we started to learn and to understand. Now, we argue and disagree with our elders. We believe their ideas are outdated and often times wrong. They want to put us in a box, a box that we don’t fit in because there are so many molds. We’re terrified by our government and media as we watch Ferguson, Mexico, Hong Kong, Thailand, Brazil, etc. continue. We’re terrified that they won’t tell us the entire story.
When we were kids, we believed a prince would rescue us or we’d rescued the princess. We watched movies and TV shows that showed that that was life—a man and a woman with kids. We read books with strong male leads and the stereotypical damsel in distress and loved it. As young adults, we understand sexuality is on a spectrum. We wait patiently for movies and TV shows with equal representation where their sexuality doesn’t define them. We read books that finally have a female lead we can feel inspired by.
As a kid, we thought we were invincible. We knew girls became moms or secretaries or teachers. Just as we knew boys became doctors or engineers or the president. We knew that boys were far better at sports and pretty much everything. As adults, we know we aren’t invincible. We understand that girls and boys can be whatever they want to be. We know that it’s all relative and who are we to force gender roles.
This is for my generation—a generation that is seeking change. We aren’t afraid to come out as homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, or asexual. We aren’t afraid to be a girl engineer or a boy nurse. We are calling for change. We aren’t afraid to protect the injustices we face. All it takes is a spark: forty-three missing, a young kid shot six times, the countless terrifying injustices the government has done.
This is for my generation that is tired of the bullshit. We are tired of the homophobia. We are tired of the sexism. We are tired of the racism. We are bone weary. We are tired of being called lazy. We are tired of our ideas getting shut down. We are tired of not being heard. We are bone weary.
This is for my generation—a generation that is unloved, unwanted, and unknown. We continue to fight for a change. You may hear people are disgusted and upset by the protests. Imagine knowing nothing’s changed since the Jim Crow laws. Hell yes, we want change. Is that not what we were promised? We protest and assemble for change and still little change occurs.
This is for my generation that will not stop until we have equality. This is for my generation that knows feminism is synonymous with equality. This is generation who is unafraid to say their sexuality. This is for my generation that will stop prejudice, discrimination, and racism. This is for my generation who is more terrified of a white (usually old) man than they are of anything else.
This is for generation so terrified by their governments that all around the world, protests continue. If you are unafraid, you have yet to see the light. If you are not aware of Hong Kong, or Mexico, or Ferguson, you are so lost. Fire is catching, and we’re all going to be burned. Catch the fire. Be my generation—not generation me, not generation technology, not generation lazy. We are Generation Change.
This is for my generation that is terrified, horrified, and disgusted by our world. This is for my generation that showcases its psyche by the stories we tell about our future. We no longer read or write about flying cars or robot dogs. Instead, we read and write about faceless government surveillance, worldwide pandemic, militarized police brutality, and the last dregs of humanity trying—struggling, dying—to survive. This is for my generation that is still called lazy and self-centered. This is for my generation that is young, here, and deeply afraid.
We are a generation that wants to make a change. We are trying to stop that terrifying unknown future. This is for my generation that wants to stop the brutality and inequality and terror. But we know—we KNOW—that no matter how hard we try and no matter what we do to take a step forward, someone will always be there to force us two steps back. No matter how far forward we leap, there will be no utopia. This is for my generation that knows when we’re in charge, our kids and grandkids will wonder why equality was being fought about. We know they’ll wonder why we didn’t stop it sooner just as we wondered the same about slavery or segregation. And we know that inequality will continue.
This is for my generation that presses for a change. We may be scared, we may be concerned, we may even be terrified—BUT we are ready for a change. We may not trust the government, the media, or humanity—BUT we still pray for a change. We may seem self-centered, lazy, and bored—BUT we are aware. We mill make a change and one day, they’ll look back and ask why people though are generation was lazy. All we’ll say is: “To the outside world we seem like mindless machines. In reality, we are so much more.”
