In the world today, we feel the driving need to protect the Earth for our posterity; actions of environmental protection are everywhere nowadays, to the point of the commercialization of the Green Movement in the United States. Our trendy president even grows an organic vegetable garden, have you heard? These movements are wonderful, raising awareness and good intentions everywhere, but there is a desperate need for more.
We need action, above all else; we need reform of the passive systems of the status quo in order to better mechanize the environmental revolution on a local level in order for it to be globally effective. Who recycles from your local learning institution? Does the janitor dump all of the trashcans into the same dumpster at the end of the day? What if he or she does? How do you change these policies in the institutions in which you live? These are the questions that today’s lost generation need to ask themselves. Is college a dump of ennui, drunken debauchery and last minute cramming for you? Why are you all in school without a passion for your own future? Have you found that one professor in the sea of useless information who pulls your brain out of your tushy yet? What will you do with that inspiration- what if the other professors you have do not blow your mind the same way?
The fact is an overwhelming rush of American youths enrolls into university these days without having a clue what they want to do with themselves. It is absolutely fine not to know what you want to do with your future! At 18 years old, from all over America, youth are confronted with the same uncertainty- but why pay tens of thousands of dollars to explore a future that you might not be invested in mentally or spiritually? The market tells you that in order to live, you need to work as hard as you can forever and ever, and the pursuit of consistency can be enough to sustain you throughout your entire life. BUT ARE YOU LIVING? Because that sounds close to an empty existence to me. And these empty motivations put you into college before you have a clue. Parents might tell you that they never used their liberal arts degree; it is fine to be in college, as long as you come out fit to be employed in this education- saturated employment market. But look at how happy your parents are in their work, and see even how many are consistently employed in the midst of this terrible financial crisis.
Now more than ever we are confronted with the mistakes of their generation, and it is time to turn this ship around. In a time when many in this beautiful, economically developed, highly industrialized nation cannot afford to eat, we must turn our eyes to where food started. If you face the decision of college vs living life and exploring yourself, choose your self. Work for yourself, without a degree, make your own food, check out your options. Couch-hopping in return for housecleaning, farming labor, and giving hand here there and everywhere are underrated. Go visit your grandparents! What are the elderly doing these days with the last of America’s social security? Discover what their regrets are and take lessons from it. And never forget how wonderful the internet is for clarifying where you can go next and who might even want to pay for your learning experience.
How many of American youths have planted a tree before? How many have planted a field? Who among you, all readers, have picked the fruit that you eat? Or killed the cow that makes your hamburger? In order to reevaluate America’s own development, it is our generation’s responsibility to forge the answers ourselves, and guess what? Those answers don’t come prepackaged at the academy of your choice. They come from tilling soil, they come from walking all day, and they come from a week in a factory for minimum wage. They come from working RETAIL. Answers come from making music and art, from reading the books that mean something significant to you, and you alone, maybe. We need the wealth of life that America can provide in order to make this country. Biodiversity is not limited to the flora and fauna, biodiversity includes the diversity of living, of growing processes, of specialization as well as realizing that you are not alone nor unique in your identity crisis. Nurture your discontent, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT because without action the opportunity is lost. Look at your young able bodies, your quick minds. You learn so fast! Your muscles can change everyday!
Think of the best adventure you always wanted to have, out in the open air, fighting for something that was important for you just because you are living it. The social work that can be done by a general will and a way because you can live the struggle is important. Don’t settle for complacency, live hard, play hard and be vigorous! This is not the time for blind happiness, because look, you graduate from High School. Your parents want you safe and steady in school again, where someone else just a little farther away can watch their baby. Life can be more than turning yourself over to the hands of the babysitters forever. You want the system to catch you if you develop a drinking problem and need help? What will you do when a friend dies young and you for the first time feel the aching hopelessness of mortality- there’s not really that much time for any of us on this earth. Seek out the extreme of a good and decent life! What do you have in you, what stops you?
The best anyone can hope for is to be happy when they finish their day. If everyone in the world could be happy at the end of the day what would happen to violent conflict? What would happen to arms races? Could we start to think about space travel again, instead of who we would kill off if we could? The best anyone can do is to expand the happiness of the world. With your own form, youth of America, you are capable of great change and efficacy! You, youth of America, you are actually secretly very useful people. Now get off your tushy, and feel something wonderful.k
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