It all started this past Friday at the Civil War Reenactment here in Fresno. For my second year, I helped teach Central Valley elementary and middle school kids about the many layers of clothing required to dress up a lady for proper society in the 1860s. Because, of course as a costume nerd, the opportunity to get pulled into a corset nine times in one day sounds like a ball! The reenactment here in Fresno has been a particular favorite of mine since the fifth grade when my teacher offered to let some of us students participate in her "orphanage" for the May Day celebration.

Now I understand, that most kids are not as fascinated as I am with acting like someone from a time long gone, but I was saddened this year while I stood before group after group of eighth graders who could not care less to be at such an exciting and interesting event that happens here in our own hometown at one of the most intriguing historical sights in the Central Valley.

The presentation only destroyed my faith in humanity as it continued. After our presentation, if we had spare time before the canon rattled the windowpanes of the Kearney Mansion, we asked the students if they had any questions about Fresno State, theatre, or college in general. The consensus of the students before us was they did not wish to go college. There are many options outside of higher education, so we continued to press them for what their dream job would be. Not a single one had an answer. Not. A. Single. One. I don't care if they wanted to be a ninja or a spy, just an opinion, a thought, or a tentative plan would have sufficed. So, of course, this interaction has been cartwheeling through my mind all weekend.

From the time I can first remember, I knew I wanted to do something with art in it. Whether it was becoming a princess in Disneyland, performing onstage, making movies, or simply becoming a painter. I have always had an opinion of what I want to do with my life, and heck yes it has changed a thousand times since I was a toddler, but I never was one to not have an opinion. And that's where each generation is beginning to struggle more and more, they're too apathetic.

What happened to a thirst for knowledge? A hunger to know more? Even if it's as weird as learning Klingon or memorizing the maps of a video game, we are not all experts on the same topics, but we have hobbies, interests, and challenges that make us interesting individuals. But today, individuality is something that ruins a reputation. If you're not in on the latest meme, drinking a Dutch Bros., and wearing the same slightly see-through black leggings as everyone else, you're scoffed at. You're weird. You don't fit in. But why?

It feels like no one stops today to sit down and ask themselves why they like the things that supposedly interest them. Is it your idea, your "friend's," or something the media said you should like? At the reenactment, when my professor held up a corset and asked eighth-graders what it was, they said a waist trainer like the Kardashians. A waist trainer!? Corsets are present in so many of our movies, tv shows, and books today, how can anyone in the eighth grade grow up without having heard of a corset at least once? Maybe that object is too obscure to our modern world that no longer believes in the value of learning about our forefathers.

So where do we go from here? Follow the Romans in their quest to squander all of their many years of achievement with gluttony and a lack of attention to detail? Is it too much to ask for everyone to try and make this world better by not teasing people for a varied vocabulary or a fascination for far off places? Our civilization will only collapse if we continue to let each generation grow more and more apathetic towards knowledge. I'm one voice that makes up a small percentage of those who wish to continue to reach for the stars and learn anything and everything before their time on Earth ends. I'd love it if we were all reaching for the stars together.