Doing an internship in the United Nations organization in Geneva reminds me of how young I am. Not just by age, but by the spirit, passion, and motivation to actually explore and do something. Here I have met many interns in the UN, just like myself: excited to part of the civil servants of the world. In the office, I am obviously the youngest, but I am very thankful at the way that my colleagues treat me. I don't feel like they talk to me as their junior, putting a spotlight on the inexperienced nature of a fresh graduate, but as an equal whose opinions are heard. This was also what I felt as a graduate student in the USA. My professor gave me the liberty to direct my own work and would question me not because he wanted to remind me of my lack of knowledge, but to help correct any misjudgements and propel the project further. I feel very lucky to have met people who appreciate youth as an unpolished gem and never as a useless piece of black rock to be trampled.
Unfortunately, the youth of my generation is sometimes correlated with laziness, unawareness, apathy, and shallowness. We have grown up in the age where comfort is an easy and a necessary commodity. We cannot imagine what writing an essay would be like without Wikipedia and Google search. We laughed at our teachers saying that they had to do engineering calculations with slide ruler back in the days. Facebook has become our closest friend. Thus, the lack of eagerness to find solutions by ourself and less awareness to our surroundings. There is sort of a 'chicken and egg' debate on this generalization that has been stamped on Generation Z (which could be loosely defined as those born since around 1985, but especially after 1990). Did the world where we were born into spoilt us so much and taught us to grow up with apathy, or did we as a generation misuse the comfort and privileges to become a spoilt cohort? Either way, despite this perception of the current youth, we have to remember that generalization is the root of suspicion and conflict. It is good as a prediction model and a step to be cautious of the trend that we have heard, but almost every issue in this world have to be seen in a case by case point of view.
If I were to point to some optimism, I could actually come up with a very long list. From Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, the 22 years old Burmese activist, to Alanda Kariza the 21 years old Indonesian youth champion, to Dimas Okky the 20 years old student from Surabaya who wowed the crowd in the second Indonesian scientific writing competition in Paris recently. I could also mention the whole attendees of the One Young World 2011, hold in Zurich a couple of months ago. Such example of young people and youth movements clearly show that we are not lazy, nor are we careless and inattentive. But, at this critical and awkward phase of life, we are just a ball of excited nerves full of untapped energy. The people I mention above are lucky enough to have found an outlet of that energy in a positive way and found adults who are nice enough to let them fill up their thirst and discharge some stupidity. Many other youth are not as fortunate. Eaten up by peer pressure, confusion about life and hormone imbalances, they directed their energy to daily clubbing, excessive spending, gossiping, or other unproductive and shallow activities. The point is, in either case, youth needs an outlet. We have too much energy.
In a poem entitled "Not Just Another Math Problem", young poet Sarah Kay expresses what she thought to be the representation of the current youth. She said, "It's not that we're shallow. No, it's that the surface of a lake won't move unless provoked. But throw in a stone, and you will see how deep these waters are." We are a generation desperate for guidance from the one before us. Without any intention of blaming, maybe, it is exactly the lack of positive provocation that is the root of the problem. The generation MTV was not shaped by the anxious teenagers rocking out some music, rapping, or cursing in songs; it was shaped by the older ones in their 40s and 50s who made decisions on what kinds of music should be broadcasted and what video clip concepts would draw teenagers. The love for celebrity gossips in Indonesia and spending money on branded clothes; isn't that just a product of what is largely available to the Indonesian youth: junk TV and mushrooming malls. And those are not in the hands of teens to decide what should be available to them. It is the giant corporations filled with the more mature individuals who worry about profit and loss. But, no, we are not shallow, we just haven't been provoked right.
As young people, rebelling is the one thing we all are good at. But in each rebel, lies the analysis of making an independent decision and discernment of thoughts. Believe me, with every "no way" that we say, we learn to think for ourselves, shaping an identity that would later bring us to a more mature state. Hopefully, we can also bring that rebellious spirit to causes that are really close to our heart, like what Wael Ghonim did for Egypt. And once a while, we meet somebody like Chris Jeon, the 21 years old UCLA student who decided to use his summer break to join the Lybian rebel fighters. Yes, youth with all the energy and fearless mind, at times do foolish things. For that I would blame Steve Jobs for his advise to students: stay hungry, stay foolish.
Whether you are young or old, nobody wants to be useless in this world. We want to have a purpose for our existence. We crave to make a mark and legacy that last until after we die, to show that we did not live for nothing. When the world says that the generation Z is lazy or full of apathy, you are confirming the confusion of the young people about what they should do and be in this world. Let's not make that confirm that confusion, let's affirm that nudging feeling of wanting to be of importance and wanting to make a difference. Nobody wants to live like a zombie, we all want a life full of zeal. As Sarah Kay continues further in her poem:
We do not want to be another annoyance
We do not want to be in the way
We are not just another math problem adults have to work around
We want to be the ones to solve them