So this is what the twenty-first century is going to be like
for future generations. Unfortunately,
my generation is forced to be the guinea pigs.
During my time of growing up into adulthood, I have lived through some
horrific events. The thing that sets
me, and my generation, apart from other ones is that we truly move
forward. In fact, at times we are pushed
forward. Many of my fellow peers are
very apathetic regarding the way things are done within their lives. While I am not one of those individuals, I
often question what I stand for and why.
Like many others in my generation, we always seem to try and find
ourselves making it through a distressful time within the current United States
realm.
Growing up, my
generation has always been threated in one way or another; yet, we always
muster strength to will ourselves to the next step in our lives. While some of us were to young to understand
what the Oklahoma City Bombing was about or why it happened, or even the Olympics
in Atlanta, it makes more sense as an adult on why & how things happen.
While it may make sense, such events are senseless to any rational human being.
Moving through the 1990s, I specifically remember the events at Columbine High
School in 1999. The only reason this is
vivid is because I was in the sixth grade and I had just moved to North
Carolina. Since I was kind of the
“strange kid” who kept to himself, I somehow was the one everyone was suddenly
afraid of. Whether it was because I
dressed differently, spoke differently, or just acted beyond my eleven years
(at the time), the other kids didn’t want to upset me or anything like
that. After about a week, things went
back to normal and I was the kid who always got picked on. I am not going to say bullied because I
wasn’t really bullied. Kids will be kids, yes; but today’s kids are just
different than how my generation was raised & acted.
Moving on to my
freshman year in high school, it was the year of the worst terrorist attack
since Pearl Harbor. Actually, let me
rewind that for a minute: in the eight grade, there were threats made to the
high school and I remember walking down the either grade hall and the fire
alarm going off and teachers telling their students to not go outside because that
was it was a trap. Nothing happened, but
it was still scary. Yet we marched on towards adulthood..
These fears
followed into college with Virginia Tech; our military friends were threated by
events such as the USS Cole bombing, Ft. Hood shooting, and other things. It
doesn’t matter what the events are…they all portray the thing that truly gets
to every person at some point or another: Fear.
My
generation gets a lot of crap from previous generations. We are either young
and naïve or just stupid. We over-think
things and tend to not care about others.
As much as I would love to agree with those generations, I simply
can’t. My generation is strong, brave,
and afraid of nothing. We might slip
from time to time and we might be apathetic to some issues, but my generation
knows what is important to keep the legacy of the United States going. We are a
strong bunch of men and women, and we are proud of our stubbornness. We fight for what is right and we stand ready
to face whatever comes our way. If we
are presented with conflict or times of tragedy, we cry but march forward ready
to tackle important issues and create a better generation. The events in Boston
are tragic, and certainly acts of terrorism. However, I believe it is essentially an event to where my generation
will finally say in one collective voice “enough is enough, we are all Americans!”
So yes, you can call us a generation of fear…but as for us, we will be
remembered as the Fearless Generation.
