Through the eyes of society, we are the generation that is “too fast”. We are the epitome of the worst thing that could happen to children. The way we look, the way we talk, just who we are- the most annoying scene to the adult world. Yeah I get it, you want us to value our age and the innocence that was supposed to come with it. And when we do not exactly abide by the rules of nature or might I say “your rules”, we get titles such as “spoiled”, “ungrateful”, “gone bad”, “hopeless generation” and so many other fancy ones. But here is a question for those accusing eyes of yours- have you ever wondered why we are like this?
My mother used to play with dolls till she was 13. I played video games. And the ones now play with makeup. Why you ask? I ask why not? Why is it so hard for you to come in terms with the fact that times have changed? That we are not ever going back to where you were. Also give it a thought, what makes us take a fast track to adulthood when we are supposed to enjoy our young age?
We are forced to take so much more responsibility now. Every time a child acts “childish” you are the one who screams “Grow up!”. But the thing is we do not know what it means to grow up. To be responsible, to act rationally. So we look at you, our examples, and do we get a good one? No, we don’t. We see irresponsibility and illogical characteristics in you too and we are able to see it because our eyes do not have many filters. We tend to see things much more clearly than you do. So when we see a “grown up” wearing makeup as to mask her insecurities, we follow her. When we see you smoking to ease your pain, we follow you. When we see our fathers hit our mothers, we lose respect for our female counterparts, we follow you. When we see you treat us like we are completely useless, we become bullies; we follow you. So maybe it is high time that you stop trying to change us and change yourselves first. Because we are watching you and we are becoming what you have become. Telling us that we should act differently is not going to help because we do not know how to.
So the next time you point a finger at a child or a teen and utter “kids these days”, stop yourself and think if you are any much better in spite of the fact that you are an adult. If you want us to be better than act better. Show us what “better” even is. Nobody is born ‘bad’, we are all born as clean slates. Every conduct we see in front of our eyes get imprinted there, gradually filling it up. I believe all of us are virtuous, but the surroundings scrape that off of us. And how much is it our fault? There are a lot of children but little childhood. Maybe the only way we are going to get some childhood is when you leave us to be ourselves and not give us responsibilities that our frail young shoulders cannot lift. Then maybe that girl will put down the makeup brush and pick up her doll.
Hope 