Just Because I Said...

I've written two of the three scholarship essays I have to finish tonight.  The first, which I thought would be my favorite, only came out okay.  The second half is all right, but the first half is lame.  Not exactly lame, but I used a style and theme I've fallen back on multiple times.  The scholarship people won't know that I've written three other nearly identical paragraphs to the one they read, but I know it and think it's lame.  I rolled my eyes at the second question.  "Is there a generation gap?  What are the differences between your and previous generations?"  Ick.  Blech.  Do I really have to write on that?!

As if to spite me, the meager forty-five minutes I dedicated to the essay produced a little piece I love.  It's rather related to the New Colossus post I just posted.  Yes, I am mocking my word-repetition-annoyance again.  Hope you enjoy this little essay!

I am rather atypical of my generation, but this seems to allow me to look more objectively at my peers.  We are told that our generation is named ‘Generation Y,’ presumably because the preceding generation was ‘Generation X.’  Once, though, a teacher told me that I was not a part of ‘Generation Y,’ but ‘Generation Why.”

I do not see much of a generation gap.  Yet I do see something: a generation slide.  I come from a family who holds education and passion as two of the highest goals to be pursued.  Education gives us structure and support.  Passion gives us meaning.  What I see as generation lands upon generation is a downward slide of desire for education and understanding of passion.

For how can we learn, if we hold no inner passion for truth?  How can we strive for what we believe in, if we are not educated enough to hold beliefs?  If we have no education and no passion then we are left with nothing but that sick and solitary question: why?

The Lost Generation gave us prose and poetry the like of which has never before or since been seen.  The Greatest Generation gave us all they could possibly give.  The Silent Generation gave us understanding of contentment.  The Baby Boomers gave us belief in prosperity and the value of a few joining ideas.  Generation X gave us belief in a few joining voices.  Then there is Generation Why.  

Why can mean “why am I here? why is it all this way? why does it never change?”  Why can also mean “why do I care? why bother?”  This second bit is dangerous.  Why do we care?  We care because the bodies around us need us to care.  Why do we bother?  We bother because one second in time can make all the difference.

Things are very bad, now.  It’s just so hard to watch.  So hard to live with.  So why are we still 

living with it? That must become the true why.  Then the question is “why are you fighting?”, and our answer 

shall be, “to save the world.”