Hello, My name is Lauren Eastwood. I'm a 17 year old who writes about: current events, emotions, hopes, fears, life occurrences and what seems to come to mind. I was luckily given this platform to share these articles and hopefully provoke thought within those who read my pieces.
I'm going to start with a thought that is a large topic of controversy: today's generation.
I was given an article from the Huffington Post 2015 to annotate in my history class this year that touched on the problems with my generation. “We have raised a generation of kids who are taught that appearance is more important substance and that outcomes are more important than character. As a result, they inhabit empty vessels that lead them to a series of negative behaviors that results in, yes, unhappiness, which they try to erase with empty, sex, drugs, alcohol," and what Professor Deresiewicz calls “junior careerism and Hobbesian competitiveness.” The hookups, drugs, and alcohol, of course, just make this abyss deeper and wider.”
Wow. I am sitting in my house office, in complete awe, highlighting the entire page pink. I am vexed as I try to piece apart this article bit by bit. To try and fill the emptiness inside of me with the filling ideas of this article. It’s a strange feeling when so many of the thoughts you once thought were only known to your mind, are exposed all over a piece of paper. It’s comforting to know that you aren’t alone. That you are not obsolete. That you have the ability to relate to other people in your generation — especially because in this generation everyone appears to be so closed off with walls built high enough to touch the moon.
The consistent temptations are overwhelming, but to contradict a majority of my fellow classmates, I cannot find enough time to experience them. College is the light at the end of the tunnel. Do I know where these tunnels lead to or even came from? Not a chance.
However, I feel as if once I reach said light, I will never have to look back. I will immediately know that it was all worth it. I will instantaneously thank myself for working as hard as I could.
“They take short-cuts because they believe the longer, harder path has no value or because they are afraid of stumbling or of being seen as someone who stumbles. They are mean or cruel or uncaring often because they do not like themselves; they feel they cannot make the grade that will earn them a spot at That College.”
I would be lying if I said I hadn’t taken a shortcut to get ahead. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid to stumble — let alone trip — on a crack in the sidewalk. I would be lying if I said I was completely happy with myself or those around me. There is nothing I want more than to make the grade of enough value to claim my spot at That College.
Our generation may be confused. It may be dismal, grade-ridden, and utterly perplexed. But we are going to make one hell of a world when we’re out there living our lives thanks to the sternness of our parents. The overbearing classes and the sleepless nights. I may have the occasional mental breakdown throughout the week, but I also may have the persistence to change the world.
