This morning, in a fancy meeting room at the Hercules Library, we had a mandatory tutorial about blogging, photo-shop, and some basic guidelines for the trip. Of course we got to hear some horror stories of examples of what not to do. The meeting lasted around 2 hours and Don gave us a very helpful handout explaining what is expected of us, which, as usual, is Ivy League standard.
A topic that seems to always arise and intimidate even the most mature of our cohorts, is how people mention that now we will be treated as adults and that the excuse that we are "just teenagers" is no longer valid. I am confident that all of our members will be on their best behavior; However, it is funny that people can say how important the youth of our generation is, while at the same time trying to transform us into adults in the midst of our youth. I completely agree that maturity is a crucial quality to developing into a respectable adult, but at the same time I feel that it is the intense ambition and immature innocence that makes teenage minds so valuable. We just need ways to harness that uncontrollable passion and motivation into making an impact in the world. I believe that growing up too quickly may in fact make that goal more difficult to reach.
A topic that seems to always arise and intimidate even the most mature of our cohorts, is how people mention that now we will be treated as adults and that the excuse that we are "just teenagers" is no longer valid. I am confident that all of our members will be on their best behavior; However, it is funny that people can say how important the youth of our generation is, while at the same time trying to transform us into adults in the midst of our youth. I completely agree that maturity is a crucial quality to developing into a respectable adult, but at the same time I feel that it is the intense ambition and immature innocence that makes teenage minds so valuable. We just need ways to harness that uncontrollable passion and motivation into making an impact in the world. I believe that growing up too quickly may in fact make that goal more difficult to reach.
Ava,
ReplyDeleteYou make a very valid point about how we're trying to turn young people into adults when we all know that you're still just teenagers--and not particularly old teenagers at that.
Fifty years ago arguments would be made in court about 21 year olds and why they should be afforded leniency for their crimes because of their youth while in today's courts we're trying as adults young people who just became teenagers.
Sometimes I think we'd be a lot better off letting our young people just be young people for a few more years before thrusting them into the harshness of the adult world that we adults seem to complain about.
There's a need for reflection on this and some of us need to be reminded that no matter what our expectations are for each of you, maybe we need to take that step back and remember what it was like for us at your age.
Ava,
ReplyDeleteI really like your entry! Especially the part where you talk about how our youth contributes to society.
Robin Rose (one of the deans at Brown) gave us this wise tidbit last year: "Some people say that youth are the leaders of the future - but I say that you are the leaders right now." And you are. I don't think you should (or will ever need to) use your age as an excuse for negative actions. I totally agree with your point about harnessing ambition and innocence.
ReplyDeleteDon, I also like your response. The balance between carefree youth and responsibility is hard to achieve; I know that I'm happiest when I have some of the responsibility of an adult but can also mostly decide for myself exactly what to take on. It's worked out well so far.