by Emmanuel David
October 21, 2009, Wednesday
IN my high school days, if you had talked to me about the things happening around me, this is what I would have in my mind:Government = Corrupt, bad, think they ‘own’ the people.
People = Same old, same old.
Education = Get scholarship, an opportunity to go away from here!
Arts = Who cares? What use does it have?
Wishes = Get out of here! Study abroad and live abroad!
Politicians = Corrupt, focus ONLY on their own needs and satisfaction.
Marketplace = Yeah?
Well, that was me back then. But now, I as a youth indeed have a big responsibility here in my own city and to my own people.
Youth today are creative, innovative, and very talented. We will not easily give up; will strive to get what is best for our own lives, will take calculated risks; and we are strong and young!
The reason why we always think that we are not so good and capable is that the more ‘mature’ generation often puts us down as they consider us still too young.
YOUTH = YOUNG (immature mind, no experience).
Today’s youth are totally DIFFERENT from the youth of yesteryears. Both you and I know that when someone asks us to do certain tasks or duties, we will definitely think twice about whether we should do it for people and follow their methods of doing things or not. We will definitely have second thoughts on projects or ideas. I am not saying that the ‘mature’ generation is not practical and their ideas are not good. It is how we execute the work and handle those who work with us that are important. We may have our own opinions and they may not be relevant to the older generation. But that doesn’t mean they should just shrug us off. They should explain to us and see how we can combine ideas and come to an agreement. To us, at least the older generation should want to discuss with us and be willing to accept ideas and opinions. LISTENING is the key word.
I can strongly say that the youth are full of talent which can be made use of. There is no limit to creativity. If we dare to express ourselves, we will be a success and an asset to the community. From a simple act to share our talents, many will benefit. We must realise our full potential and dare to dream BIG by trusting what we can do as youth. Let us focus on what we can contribute and not fear to take any risks, for without risk, we cannot achieve anything.
We should always be righteous in our journey to our goals. Being righteous, we will know what the best roads to take are. And there will be no turning back, but we will keep pressing on towards our goals. When others put us down, we may fall BUT let’s make sure we get right back up and become youth of excellent stature.
People always say that we are the ‘NEXT GENERATION’. We are shrugging that off and telling ourselves “We are not only the ‘next generation, we are set to finish what we are assigned to do in this world, complete our duty to the people, and finish the race so that we can pass the ‘BATON’ to our younger generation so that they can finish their race too.
I am of the opinion that today’s youth are a confident generation – that they will stand up for righteousness and have the power to start and finish strong in every aspect of their lives. In this fastpaced and ever changing world that we live in, where the youth are often forgotten, we need to keep striving for the best and prove not only to ourselves but also to others that we are capable of doing things that matter so as to contribute to the betterment of our society. Be a generation that will faithfully RUN THE RACE of your lives and fulfill your goals and destinies
Let us not be selfish with our talents and ideas; let us share them and work together. Can we use all that we have to help others? The answer is YES, because ‘We are the Ones’! I believe many of our young people out there go along with me in ‘saying our piece’.
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