I have so much hope for our generation. Recent technological advances integrated with a society of educated scholars and diligent laborers is our nation's key to skyrocketing success and we finally have the power sitting in our hands.

Despite what was just said, I am tragically left feeling utterly ashamed every day that I am a millennial.

I walk from professor to professor already knowing that I will have to work hard from the start to change their set opinion of me. After all, I am a part of the new generation so I must be nothing but trouble and failure right? Wrong.

I was in the running for salutatorian until my junior year of high school with a 4.8 GPA. I graduated with a 4.62 and a resume almost four pages long single-spaced filled with charity work, club offices, and scholar-oriented competitions. I played varsity-level sports, earned scholarships, and even graduated with enough college credits to be close to having an associate degree. But guess what, none of that matters because I am a millennial.

The 2000's is home to so many amazing discoveries and advancements. The first public available devices were released with Global Positioning System applications similar to military-grade. GPS's have increased efficiency of businesses all over not to mention helped improve safety of drivers everywhere. Shortly after, whether you like it or not, social media took flight. Despite few bad instances, these pages have the potential to be beneficial and even crucial in one's professional and educational life. Google also became public which is self-explainable as to why that is a huge deal. The Human Genome Project made a break through in detected a limitless number of genetic diseases and history. Stem cell research has saved and improved millions of lives. and that is only a small handful of all the incredible achievements made in the early 21st century.

We have the God-given potential and resources to make this world unrecognizable in less than fifty years. Whether it is a positive or negative change is up to our new generation. We can outlive most common diseases today until we die comfortably of natural causes by fate. We are created new jobs and positions due to the need for higher education. We are literally outgrowing this world. It is up to us to create a world fit for our potential.

Here's the problem... We are taking political stands and voting based on our family and friend's opinions or what looks easiest to get benefits from. We are choosing majors to get a low demanding job so we can make enough to survive and still have fun. We are relying on our government and the labor of a society created over 70 years ago. We are borrowing money we can't pay back from countries with enough weaponry to turn our country into a trench in the sea. Our scholars are leaving the country to find bigger challenges and our useless population remains to live off the government and cheat the system. We are too worried about our public image and when the next party is while our military is off getting ignored by the government and shot in countries THAT WE ARE DOING BUSINESS WITH. This is why I am so ashamed of my fellow millennials.

Let's take the popular opinion of our generation and put ourselves in the future's textbooks by proving everyone wrong. Let's not let the media coax us into a candidate that makes it look like the government will cater to us all our lives. Let's make life decisions based on our passions and strengths that will lead us to a life remembered in history to come. Let's stand for the flag and bow our heads to all types of religious prayer out of respect. But don't stop there. Then, let's join hands with white lives, black lives, law enforcement lives, political lives, EVERY LIFE. Otherwise, the country we once loved and took pride in will simply be a laughing stock in the past and it will be us to blame for being such a disgrace.

I proudly use the words of Ronald Reagan as I say, "While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future." Join me as I work every day to live for the future. God bless.