Something I have always pushed myself to do is to not let myself fall to the “social norms” of the times. Anywhere from music, to clothing, or from hobbies and passions. In the world that we live in today, many are demanding change, yet they won’t change even themselves. That is a key aspect many ignore: the fact that a change of our surroundings begins first with a change within ourselves. Nothing can get better if we do not make a change of our own character. Whether big or small, making a determination to make an alteration of our own being or mindset is where we must change. Alongside with a change, a commitment to adjust and evolving also will bring about a new culture within our being. With a great deal of observation and self-evaluation, new lifestyles and ideals will begin to grow within us.

As schooling progressed each year, people began to lose a lot of personal individualism in an attempt to find their way into a clique or group. They drop the things they enjoy with an excuse of growing up, yet in reality, it is the society around us shaping and molding us into what is perceived as an example of an acceptable societal member. We fell away from our potential and were herded into a direction of left or right. So many people allow themselves to fall into these directions with no attempts to redirect themselves while simultaneously voicing a desire to be like people they idolize and look up to. Yet these same people, the ones looked up to, are people who dropped what society directs us to be and stood strong in their own personal hopes and beliefs. They stayed true to themselves and through every up and down pushed in their desire to remain themselves. To find success and be beyond a number and create a place in the world for them to be a name.

Though young, I have had many opportunities in my life that have given me a choice of staying true to myself and making adjustments in order to accomplish my goals or choosing to be what the influences of the world pressured me into. A year ago, this week was one of these precious and pivotal moments. In the summer of 2015, I was given the privilege to be a delegate in the 2015 session of Kansas Boys State. As I write this, I am back as a counselor. For those of you who may not know what Boys State is, in brief it is a leadership and government camp. It stresses the importance of civil responsibility, but what it did for me in character was so much more. It helped me become a citizen beyond just being a number, but also a voice. I learned in an all new perspective about my self-worth in regard to this country. In time leading up to that week, I would find myself stuck in a loop of finding a problem, complaining that it needed to be fixed, doing nothing and then finding a new problem. After that week, I can say I have fallen into a new pattern of addressing a problem, striving for a solution and then looking for a way that I myself can grow and become better. I find myself simply being in this world, but no longer requiring myself to be of the world.

All around us, the world is looking for solutions, solutions that we are prepared and capable of fixing. But how will we fix these problems if we can’t tear ourselves away for even a small moment in order to recognize them? The family is being regarded as something temporary and given up on as if that’s just what happens, people are taking action in illegal consumption because they say we might as well live life while we can. People are allowing themselves into positions of despair and hopelessness with only a thought that it’s the way it is with no intention or thoughts of trying to save it. Their loss, depression and self-declared defeat brings even sadness to me. Not because of the state they are in, but because of their denial of a present and true capability to change that atmosphere. But us, we humans, are a stubborn and conceited species. It’s a sad truth. We want change, we don’t want to be sad or hurt. We desire happiness and success, yet we live in a generation of people who either say that they won’t change to make it happen or a generation of people who are told that no matter what they do they can’t change how things are going to be justifying it as the “natural order of life.”

I challenge each of you, in this day at this moment, to declare to yourselves that you will seek change and be a conduit for it to occur. Change your stuck mindsets and open your ears and heart to a better future and prosperous present. When the tides turn and the generational mindset is one of change today for ourselves, a change in the world will be found in the next day. We can no longer afford to sit back and just hope, but must go out and do. Be a voice, a name, a person. Don’t just be satisfied on being a number or a statistic lost in the records of time. With the opportunities presented to us, we have a chance and potential to make the greatest differences and achievements tomorrow, and it all starts with me, with you, with us. Today. This culture, it’s our culture. Let’s change it.