But That's What I Think

Originally posted to  The Odyssey Online We're the next rulers. It's as simple as that. This generation, my generation, is the next group of leaders that will bring our world to greatness or lead us into despair. We've sat back and watched for years now as our world gets torn apart by climate change and war. We try, day by day, to stay unaffected by all the hatred that surrounds us every day. We go on, trying to find some reason to not be angry. People say that this generation of teenagers is worse than the last, and even though this is said every generation, it might just be true this time. We have watched as helpless people get left to the devices of war, seen our own countries be ravaged by hatred, and people lose hope for nature. To put it simply we need to be the generation to end that. The generation that rises up, takes leadership wholeheartedly and starts to make the place we live more habitable. We need to work to give our kids a chance. From cancer research ...

Originally posted on The Odyssey Online   There is a generation, I want to say everyone between ages 15 and 30, that grew up with 9/11. In the sense that some were living their teen years when the planes hit and others were newborns. I myself was just 1 and I don’t remember that, but by the time I was 5 I knew what had happened and was desperate to know why it had happened. I spent September 11th, 2007 reading the old newspaper clippings my parents had kept and watching the news. I wanted to know. In middle and high school, every year that 9/11 fell on a school day we would talk about it in class, how it affected us, and how we should remember that day. I’ve heard stories from so many friends and at least four teachers, but one struck me the hardest. In my school, there are quite a few young teachers below the age of thirty who were teenagers or maybe younger when the planes hit. This teacher told us that she’d been at school when the world literally stopped. Her teachers tur...

Originally posted to  The Odyssey Online I was sitting in the car with my mom and driving to a softball tournament when she told me to put my phone away and stop playing games. I had been texting my best friend and as I told her this, I realized something.  When parents yell at their kids for being on their phones all the time, most of those times kids are talking to their friends on some social media platform, and it’s like this because we don’t have time or ways to see our friends as often. As parents get more protective, more social media platforms flourish because its a way for kids to let their friends into their lives whether it be with six second videos or a photo that they took on vacation. As kids get ore separated, since they’re not with their friends, they become more addicted to social media because its a way for them to interact with their friends.  While parents think the problem is the social media, the problem is mostly the parents not allowing the...