Expectations

There are so many things that can be said for my generation. It is one surrounded by an unfathomable amount of toleration, speculation, and low demands. Society has one common idea about those of us between the ages of thirteen and nineteen today: that there isn't a whole lot to be expected of us.

How long do you think the term teenager has been around? Honestly, just take a quick guess. You're probably thinking that it's just one of those words that has been around forever, like any other word. In reality, the word was never even documented until 1941 when Reader's Digest used it in one of its early issues. That means that the term has not even been around for seventy years yet. So what were individuals in this age group called before 1941? I'll tell you what. They were just people. They held jobs and important positions in everyday life. They contributed to their families, homes, towns, and cities by working hard and doing what they had to do to make it. They didn't just sit around and meet the lowest of expectations, because their society asked more from them. The problem today is, teens don't do more because no one asks or expects them to accomplish anything outside of making their bed every morning and perhaps pitching in to wash the dishes after dinner. The potential is there in every teen, but its been known to happen that when the difficulty of a demand is low, the skill level used to achieve the demand sinks as well.

I have seen and been apart of such lowering of skill many times. It's painful and embarrassing to witness and take part in, but it happens all the time. One obvious example of it can be found in sports. Those of you who have read a post or two of mine before know that I am an avid athlete, volleyball being my personal passion. I cannot tell you how many times my team and I have played a much lower level team than ourselves, and struggled to beat them. It's because we succeeded in sinking down to their level, and because not a whole lot was asked of us to beat that team. We didn't achieve much and didn't work hard or really do anything at all. This is what society today is doing to teenagers. It's put us in this stereotypical bubble that tells us over and over again that it knows that we aren't capable of as much and that it's alright. It tells us so many times that we start to believe it, and therefore sink to its lower levels of accomplishment.

Think back to the times of our country's beginnings, of frontier life and the exploration of a new world. People then were put into two categories: children and adults. Either you were a child, which meant that you weren't mentally or physically able to contribute to your family's needs; or you were an adult that pulled your own weight everyday for the better of your family and friends. Back then the classification of being a child or an adult had to do with only one thing: puberty. Once you went through puberty, you were an adult, and therefore expected to work just as hard as your mother and father. There was no such thing as the teenage years back then. Girls as young as fifteen got married and ran their own households and took care of children, while men of the same age held jobs and supported their own families single-handedly. So what's changed between then and now? It certainly isn't the quality of people. Teens still have all the potential and capability that those of old did. The difference now is, society isn't asking half as much of us as they used to. They are dumbing us down, asking very little. And when you ask just a little, you will only gain just a little.

Politicians and local officials all the time ask what is wrong with today's generation, and say that we as a group are in a downward spiral and are nothing like the generations of yesteryear. They have called us the laziest generation yet, one that is more ignorant and difficult to deal with than any other. Well wake up and smell the coffee you ludicrous, selfish, stubborn administrators! Grow up yourselves and be some sort of decent role models. YOU are the ones that are raising us and molding us into what we are becoming! Do you think we were just born this way? I think not. We are merely the product of what society has infiltrated into our minds and everyday lives. Nowadays most of the people in a position to make a difference such as senators, governors, school councils, and other government officials are not at all interested in what young people think or need. All they care about is getting the biggest paycheck possible, and if that means passing a few new bills, laws, or regulations here and there that may or may not be beneficial to the overall population, they won't hesitate to do it. From my experience with them, all they want is a quick fix for our everyday problems, one that will cost them as little money and effort as possible. Newsflash government officials, the easy way out is NOT what we need. What we need is for those of you out there who have power over our future to do what will be best for US in the long haul, not for you. You aren't the ones who will be ruling twenty years from now. It will be us. The younger generation. And if you don't shape and lead us the right way now, all of the generations of the future will suffer just as we are currently. It will be even worse for them. We need adults out there to push us to reach our full potential. It won't be easy, since we find ourselves in a bit of a pit right now; it will be very, very hard. But growing a new generation of intelligent, well-rounded, well-informed, hard-working people is a hard business.

It is said that when more is asked of someone, they will rise to the occasion. The same goes for young people. If someone would just step up and ask more of us, I'm sure the majority would rise to the occasion as well. We are capable of so much, and have all the potential to outsmart even the greatest teachers, scientists, and philosophers. People aren't just born geniuses. They have to be tended to and nurtured just like the most temperamental of flowers. So yes, this generation might be the laziest, but it isn't our fault. Society has pampered us and made us forget what hard work and determination is. All we need is a big shove in the right direction, and we can become the next group of world changers, and impact people across the nations.

All we need is a little hope, a little knowledge, and some very high expectations.

"High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation." - Charles F. Kettering