THIS NEW GENERATION, I TELL YOU

- Caelean Aleena Tavares

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had that addressed to me. Our generation is most subjected by these six simple words. All through their adolescence what teenagers want is to be taken seriously. It can’t be a pure coincidence that this is the very age when you’re too old for certain things and too young for the other half. Does it ever strike you as black magic that most suicides happen at this very tender age? We might look grownup, we might act like them, but in our own minds, we’re slowly losing it. You’re sixteen and all of a sudden, you’re thinking of college, assignments, grades, school, dating and surviving from a different angle. You’re trying your level best to stay afloat.

Extempore from my younger days come to mind, the most common topic; If you were the Prime Minster for a day, what would you do and why? There are a lot of things that I’d like to do. Change the world perhaps, destroy communism, kill off the very concept of alarm clocks and healthy eating. But throughout the time, deep down I know that this is what is going to get me to my goal. And despite knowing all of this I continue to loll around, watch movies, surf the internet and write articles of the topics I feel deeply with instead of taking action and taking charge of “my destiny” so to say.

“Follow your heart, listen to what it says, that gut feeling, follow your dreams, take the risks” -they say all of this, but when it comes to actually doing it. I have a friend who wished to pursue Archaeology in the future. And the first thing society says- “Eh, beta how will you earn the money, do you want to keep your wife happy or not?” There it is. Back to the question of earning money, it is inherent this constant need to have a rightful say about everyone’s business, even when it is NOT your place to do so. Society will NEVER tell you what you want to hear, they will tell you what you don’t want to hear. So, in the end who do you go to for that motivation? You go to yourself. You drive yourself insane with incentive and motivation that comes from within. The most successful stories that I’ve heard, all came from one place, self-motivation. In today’s race if you’re not motivated, driven or passionate, this cut-throat environment is really not the place for you.

One of my favorite quotes from all time comes from a tattoo on Stan Waurika’s forearm, by Samuel L. Beckett; an Irish poet. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” No one will condemn your failure as hard as you will. Your biggest critique at the end is inevitably you.

Our generation has faced its fair share of criticism, for being the most out spoken, opinionated and tolerant that our country has ever seen. If that’s not something to be proud of, then what is? Lastly, keep failing, keep living not surviving, but most importantly keep trying. Because this new generation, I tell you is going to change the world.