My father was born in 1948. Many times I ask him what it was like to be a young man during the civil rights movement and he replies, "it was something." Reading through history books and coming across chapters on the holocaust, segregation, and slavery horrify me and many times I think to myself, if only I had been there, I wonder if I would have stood up, if I would have done something.

I think it's safe to say many of us like to think if we had lived through such horrible times we would have done something, we would have been brave, but that's a bold assumption. How do I know that's a bold assumption? Because so few people stand up today and say something. The past always feels historical because it's the past, but we often forget history happens in the present as well. Today, movements like Black Lives Matter, environmental movements, and historical moments like Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to be a presidential candidate for a popular political party, those are all incredible historic moments happening, but many of us have little or nothing to say about these topics. Instead, we live mundanely, focused only on our own lives and not thinking about what's going on around us. Most young people today are more focused on "Kimye" and "Brangelina" splitting than the things their kids will read about 20 years from now, or what's even going to affect them four years from now when they leave college. It's a devastating thing for a people to be so numbed to reality that we don't take it seriously until it's history.

I had an epiphany the other day that I am a hypocrite. I always think I would've done something or said something had I lived in precarious times, but I was wrong. I don't say what I need to now, I don't speak out like I should now, so there's no reason to believe I would have then. But that's going to change. From now on, I am going to speak my mind and have my voice heard. Millennials speaking up is the cry of The Odyssey, and there's no reason this can't be the way I change my outlet to stand up against those who try to ignore the problems around us. America today faces many new challenges, and I refuse to live my life thinking, "If I had been there," and instead I'm going to be able to say, "I was there."