I get a little tired of all the talk about the next generation. They are going to be world changers. They matter more than the rest of us. They will fix what is unfixable.
The adoption of this language, primarily heard in religious communities, shows we have given up and put our very present reality into the hands of kids. We live vicariously through the lives of the youth because we have failed to realize a life worth living for ourselves and others. We place a tremendous amount of pressure on the lives of kids to become adults sooner, when what they really need is time to be kids and not take life seriously.
However, there is a deeper problem. The current leaders have decided to skip a generation and give the blessing of power and control to their grandchildren, not their children. Is it because they have failed miserably in raising their own children and want to make up for it in the lives of their grandchildren? Or is it about control and manipulation?
I am not ready to pass off my responsibilities to the next generation. I may not have been passed the torch from the leadership around me, but I have the desire and passion to attempt to make the world a better place. I may not be a world changer in the eyes of the generation in charge, but the world is often changed by the unexpected forces no one sees coming.
I don’t want to wait until tomorrow to fix today. I don’t want to wait five years for the world to be changed by the youth. Change starts today with my own life, with the lives of my friends and family, and with the fire that burns deep within me.
I’m not ready to go to the glue factory, how about you?