Information

The students of one of my classes this semester have made me realize how much has changed from when I was in my early 20s.  I’m 15 years removed from that age of innocence.  Trying to feel like you know everything going on around you and feeling you have the world by its tail and can have whatever you want.  Those days were great, and I do kind of miss that feeling of naivety to what is really going on, but at the same time, I’m glad I don’t have to feel lost when things start changing because I wasn’t ready for it.  I know I still don’t know everything like I used to think I did, but I have a better understanding of what I don’t know and am okay with allowing myself the freedom of not having to know everything.

Back to why I feel old.  This past week in my class on Nelson Mandela the discussion turned to how the generation of kids who are in college right now seem to have a better understanding on how to change things in the world and have more knowledge of the issues changing things  throughout all nations.  After listening to the kids talk about why they don’t think their parents get what is going on and why they feel their generation will make the right choices to make the world a better place, I decided to bring up the fact that what does help them with knowing what is going on has a lot to do with the access to the information.  Sure they try to do a lot with said information, but it’s not like generations before them did nothing when there were big issues to be discussed.  I reminded them that the internet wasn’t as widely used and accessible as it is now and that many schools didn’t get into the current events as much as they do now.  Yes I know schools did try to educate the students, but the information wasn’t always so up to date as it is now.  Look at how easy it is to keep track of what is going on in Egypt with your cell phone.  Twitter updates, streaming news and blogs are all available in a handheld device you use daily to keep in contact with your friends.  Honestly, I didn’t have a computer of my own until I was in my mid 20s and I still didn’t use it for much more than checking e-mail.

I am not saying kids these days have it easier and aren’t doing their part to help shape the future, but I want them to realize they aren’t the first to protest what is going on around the world and that they won’t be the last.  I Don’t want them to be satisfied with saying they know what’s going on and sent a message of support and thinking that is enough to say you’re involved.  In another 15 years college age kids will be saying how much more they are doing to help those that need it and are more aware of what’s going on because they seem to take action.  They’ll be saying how their parents didn’t seem to do anything to really make a difference and so on.  It’s a vicious cycle of young minds not realizing what generations before them did to shape the world the way it is now.  They need to understand their ambitions will change and concerns will be different once they have a career and family pulling them in different directions and they will no longer have the time to put in helping overturn governments in foreign lands or to protest the most recent war America is in.  I’m not saying they should stop doing those things to help the world, but they need to understand that sometimes the choice to be heard isn’t always the best choice to be made.

Listening to the kids in my class discuss this stuff about their generation and how generations before them didn’t do as much, coupled with me bringing up the fact that it has been 15 years since I was 20 made me feel old, it almost made me feel like an adult.  This stuff has been on my mind since the class and made me think about what it was like when I was their age and that is why I am feeling old this week, that and the fact of how I wake up stiff as a board every morning with creaking joints.

That’s all I want to say on this subject.  So until next time, keep reading the pages laid in front of you and discover the world swirling around in your head waiting to be shared.

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