21.5 million
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 11:36 PM
tonight I watched the movie Domino, which follows the titled character [Kiera Knightly] on her path to become a notorious bounty hunter. leading to, of course, an equally notorious crime. this is not important. what is important is that this movie got me thinking about lifestyle's and routines.
I brush my teeth twice a day, floss once, rinse once, wear retainers for 10-12 hrs a night. wash my face twice, shower every morning, one egg for breakfast, two fish oils, four glasses of water, one new pair of socks, etc. my life is routine. then I started thinking about my friends lives right now [my life in a couple weeks I presume]: go to school, go to work, come home and have some sort of personal fulfillment [reading, blogging, sewing, cooking, chatting, coffee, etc]
there are appx. 21.5 million [21,500,000] teenagers ages 14-19 years old in America. most of them probably having lives similar to me/my friends. their lives are probably filled with the same: school, learning how to break into a "real" carreer, minimum wage job, parental consent forms, trying to improve their own lives.
what if we had a draft. a draft of all the kids in high school. this draft would ask them, "what do you want to do with your life?"
you want to be a personal trainer? well here is a team of other students just like you, a gym, some mentors, and a target group [obese people] to change their lives. the kids would go to work during the day, learn from their mentors, help these people change their lives, their families lives, their communities lives, and get paid doing it.
you want to build houses? well here is a team of other students just like you, a plan, some mentors, and some impoverished people who really need houses. go to work everyday and build them houses and make money. impacting their whole lives and their families, impacting their community.
you want to be a doctor? a nurse? a translator? a lawyer? an entrapenuer? a teacher? well here is a group of students. go to Africa and make change. build hospitals, start businesses, teach children, teach safe sex, teach them how to fish.
the truth is that teenagers are dying to impact their communities. they're dying to start their "real lives" [as labeled by the world, really, their carreer/family/own life], they're dying to make change in this suffering world, they're dying to learn a trade that THEY WANT TO LEARN. the truth is that teenagers WANT to do something, they want to do it in a big way.
they dont want to wait until they've graduated high school, gone to college, gotten a degree, and created a family. they want to learn now and progress their whole lives. why are we taking such a huge and valuable chunk out of our youths lives but not enabling them to experience? why are we telling them not to grow up by sticking them in cookie cutter schools where arent focusing and arent excelling? why doesnt society teach them what they have learned and give them the resources to make an incredible difference in this world.
the truth is that most adults dont have time. dont have money to build houses for the poor on the side of the rich. they dont have resources to fight AIDS in Africa along side America. they dont have energy to teach foster kids in addition to their own.
but we do.
I dont care what you say, my generation will make change.
I brush my teeth twice a day, floss once, rinse once, wear retainers for 10-12 hrs a night. wash my face twice, shower every morning, one egg for breakfast, two fish oils, four glasses of water, one new pair of socks, etc. my life is routine. then I started thinking about my friends lives right now [my life in a couple weeks I presume]: go to school, go to work, come home and have some sort of personal fulfillment [reading, blogging, sewing, cooking, chatting, coffee, etc]
there are appx. 21.5 million [21,500,000] teenagers ages 14-19 years old in America. most of them probably having lives similar to me/my friends. their lives are probably filled with the same: school, learning how to break into a "real" carreer, minimum wage job, parental consent forms, trying to improve their own lives.
what if we had a draft. a draft of all the kids in high school. this draft would ask them, "what do you want to do with your life?"
you want to be a personal trainer? well here is a team of other students just like you, a gym, some mentors, and a target group [obese people] to change their lives. the kids would go to work during the day, learn from their mentors, help these people change their lives, their families lives, their communities lives, and get paid doing it.
you want to build houses? well here is a team of other students just like you, a plan, some mentors, and some impoverished people who really need houses. go to work everyday and build them houses and make money. impacting their whole lives and their families, impacting their community.
you want to be a doctor? a nurse? a translator? a lawyer? an entrapenuer? a teacher? well here is a group of students. go to Africa and make change. build hospitals, start businesses, teach children, teach safe sex, teach them how to fish.
the truth is that teenagers are dying to impact their communities. they're dying to start their "real lives" [as labeled by the world, really, their carreer/family/own life], they're dying to make change in this suffering world, they're dying to learn a trade that THEY WANT TO LEARN. the truth is that teenagers WANT to do something, they want to do it in a big way.
they dont want to wait until they've graduated high school, gone to college, gotten a degree, and created a family. they want to learn now and progress their whole lives. why are we taking such a huge and valuable chunk out of our youths lives but not enabling them to experience? why are we telling them not to grow up by sticking them in cookie cutter schools where arent focusing and arent excelling? why doesnt society teach them what they have learned and give them the resources to make an incredible difference in this world.
the truth is that most adults dont have time. dont have money to build houses for the poor on the side of the rich. they dont have resources to fight AIDS in Africa along side America. they dont have energy to teach foster kids in addition to their own.
but we do.
I dont care what you say, my generation will make change.
