I read, "I'm not gay, my butt is," off of a crumpled paper chef's hat thrown over one of his mom's knic-knacks in the basement.
His makeshift coffee table was two stacked boxes of Pfaltzgraff dinnerware.
"Why do you got your arms crossed all the time?"
After he made an argument that essentially insulted my education in interpersonal communication, he told me that I was "cute" a number of times- as if that mattered more than a $100,000 thought in my head.
He left the basement to use the bathroom several times, and one of those times, I actually said, "What am I doing here?" out loud to myself.
I laughed until tears started to form in my eyes, then quickly wiped them away as I heard his heavy footsteps bounding back down the stairs.
"I wanted to be a marine, but I wouldn't be allowed with this tattoo I got on my wrist... then I thought about the navy, but I got this job at the warehouse."
This is a scene that I have grown to know well.
On a "date" in the basement with his mom upstairs, no car, dead-end job at a warehouse, "shoulda, woulda, don't really give a shit."
When did my generation get stuck in these concrete cracks of our nation?
When did I start hating every one that doesn't have one ambitious thought in their head?
This "boomerang" generation is... well... overall, we're lazy pieces of shit.
I would blame technology and the overwhelming accessibility to wrong information, but that would be taking the easy way out.
My argument has little to do with people's choice to pursue higher education or not, because plenty of people that go to trade school or get jobs after high school have motivation to succeed and then do so.
My argument is simply based on the fact that somehow, the majority of twenty-three/twenty-four-year-old men I meet aren't the kind of men I see making a difference in this world.
Maybe I'm being too judgmental, but is demonstration of ambition too much to ask of a generation that has close to endless possibilities?
We were born in the United States and we live during a time where we are able to get pretty much anything we want- as long as we are willing to try.
I joke around about how I think I'm here, just "floating" through life all of the time because I haven't necessarily found a career or life path yet, but these guys in the basement smoking weed and just getting by truly bother me.
They have more potential than they'll ever be aware of. But they don't care.
I especially hate when these guys (all the same boring archetype) talk about the possibility of pursuing a career in armed forces. I'm sorry, but that is not the easy way out, nor will it "straighten" you out like you think it will. It's an insult to the friends and family I have that have served if you have nothing but selfish intentions and think you have "no other option." It's called the service for a reason, asswads. You're serving this nation. You know, the one that gives you the right to sit in your parent's basement and not give a shit.
I might be completely wrong about a lot of this, but the people I keep meeting are all the same lazy shell of a human being. They may be more than that, but that's not what they're communicating to the world.
Maybe they'll wake up after their 20s, but do they ever question the impact they're making on others' lives like I do?
What makes me special?
What can I do to educate people and make them think?
What can I be to help make the changes I want to be made possible?
All I ask of our generation is to at least try and make a difference in the world we live in. I don't know how people go through life without wanting to fight for some sort of cause- whether it be education, animal or human rights, the legal system, or sustainable energy. We are all products of a nation that has an accessibility to organizations and causes that no one has ever had before... so why not take advantage of that?
My sixty-three-year-old co-worker told me that he believes in our generation so much that he thinks we can truly change the world.
I just don't see it.
I hope we prove me wrong.
Stuff
17 years ago