Road Rage

 

So, one of my biggest pet peeves has to be  this: Let's say there's a lane closure ahead.   They put up the warning signs a half mile ahead, telling drivers to start merging into the soon-to-be only open lane.  But noooo, there's some bro who continues flying down the left lane, passing all the good people who are merging over.  He gets in front, pops a signal, and someone lets him in.  Seriously?  It's an awful childish thing to get upset about, I guess.  I figured we'd get over this whole you-cut-me-in-line-so-I'm-gonna-kill-you dealio after we were promoted to junior high.  But really, this bothers me.  I wish all the other drivers around me would band together and make him sit and wait in the closed lane for everyone to pass.

But guess what?  This post has nothing to do with road rage, driving, or anything of that nature.  I was just thinking about it and figured it'd be a good hook.  And I'm completely aware that hooks are supposed to be related, somehow, to the overall main topic of the prose, but I don't care because I'm not really expecting you to grade my work.  I do, however, apologize for the false-advertising in the title and introductory paragraph of this post.

K.  Now, let's get to it.

Every second we spend alive we also spend dying.  Neil Armstrong, who recently passed away, said, "Every human has a finite number of heartbeats, I don't intend to waste any of mine."  Every breath we take is one more breath to our very last and with each resilient heart beat, we are one more closer to our final pulse. There is no stopping time. Yeah, we can kill time, but we can't stop it.  We can't erase it.  We can't make it go faster.  There are times we wish we could disappear.  There are times we wish we could skip a few days ahead because the current situation sucks.  There are times we want to make a certain moment last forever.   And there are those moments we want to live in for eternity.

So, what can we possibly do with all our seconds? We are only given 2,838,240,023 something seconds in a lifetime, if we're lucky. And you can just waste them thinking pessimistically. Of course, my request is that you don't. But that is not the point of this rant.

Everything dies. Everything ends. We can't stop them from doing so, and we can't prevent some sort of end to our lives. We all die. There is no fountain of youth to make us young forever. Those stupid ads about making us look younger won't add years to our life, as much as we wish we could do so.

It's very easy to waste time, here.  I suggest living every second to the fullest, bettering yourself as much and as often as possible, and appreciating everything you have.

And you see, this world is broken.  I'm not saying that to be completely pessimistic, but to help you realize that bad things happen.  They always will.  And things fall to ruins faster than you can build them up.  It's a travesty, really.  But it's just part of the process.

The facts that nothing will ever be perfect and nothing will be ever be completely the way we want it to be, and the inevitability of the ends of our lives shouldn't exactly hinder you from living your life to the fullest.  I know, I know, it's an awful motivator, but read on and I'll shine a little light on my view of things.

The imperfection of this universe is so obvious.  We all have our flaws.  Life sometimes just flat out sucks.  But use these things -- the negative crap, the problems, the trials-- all to better yourself.  Never stop striving to do so.

I like to believe that everything we do sends little ripples, and those ripples are the effects we have on the things they touch.  I think it's called the Butterfly Effect.  Maybe.  For example, the action of me sipping out of my Mountain Dew will have very little effect on other people.  But a man terrorizing a movie theater with assault rifles and tear gas... the ripples are powerful, and have a disastrous effect.

And while that last example of strong ripples was terribly negative, I want you to see that you can change other peoples' lives. Almost every action affects at least one other person.

Take advantage of those situations.  Contribute to another person's story.  Help that random kid pick up their dropped books in the middle of the busy hallway.  Let that other driver out of the parking lot and in front of you so they don't have to wait five more minutes for the traffic to dissipate.  Actually leave a decent tip for your waitress or hold the door open for those strangers tailing behind you as you exit the restaurant.  Small ripples, maybe, but wonderful consequences.   Make it your goal to impact another person in a positive way at least once every day.

Appreciate life.  As it is.  Because if you spend a single day hating it for what you don't have, you'll forget what you do have. If you spend a single second wishing things would just end because they are not so great at the moment, then you will lose sight of what happiness was.  If you sit there and think of the past and let it bring you under and if you look to the future with tears because you just can't "see the good in life" then you wake up one day and look back and think... "Oh how I've wasted all my years."

I don't want to say, "Appreciate what you have, now, because you won't have it for much longer."  What I'm saying, though, is yes, that's generally true, but acknowledge the blessings in your life.

So, back to my original thoughts:

We are all dying.

There's a girl that's been diagnosed with cancer as you are reading this. Think of how she feels. Think of the pain she's going through, emotionally and physically. She's probably only sixteen, and she might not be able to go to college, see her favorite band play live, throw a grad cap in the air, or walk down the aisle with some guy to get married.  You might have done those things.

You've got so much ahead of you. Don't let the here and now, and the past, blind you. Learn from it, yes, but do not allow it to so much as cause you to veer off your path because you have the potential to be anything you want.

Appreciate the little, and prepare for the big, because if you have little now, can't it only get better? Believe.

Science is a philosophy that there needs to be reason. That you have to see, touch, or feel something for it to be truth. Belief is something completely different. The future is only what you believe. You can't see it, you can't feel it and you definitely can't touch it, but you can form it in your mind and believe that everything will be okay.

I was told that in the end everything is fine. And if it's not fine, then it's not the end. If you can believe that, then you'll find peace in any situation.

Yeah. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes it's hard to cling to faith when life throws so many stupid curveballs and sour lemons that we cannot possibly make good tasting lemonade out of, but it all circles back to belief. Believe.

I believe that as long as I strive to better myself in all situations, I will be better.  As long as I try to live my life to the fullest and positively impact others each day, I'll have a positive outlook on life.  I believe that if I appreciate everything and acknowledge the value of things and people in my life, I'll never feel empty or unsatisfied.  I believe that if I live life that way, I won't regret anything when my time comes.

And there's always a but.  There's always the "what if."  And I tell you this:

Things happen for a reason. Things end at certain times, but all when they should. We can't change how things are. We can't change the past. We can plan the future but what happens, happens. I can't explain why kids get cancer, why there are hurricanes and earthquakes that kill thousands or why Obama sucks. (troll) I can't give you the answers you might want when you ask why do bad things happen.

I suggest that you don't spend your time looking for answers those answers but rather, spend your time living.

That's not what this is, by the way.  This isn't some profound explanation of why everything happens or whatever.  It's more of my philosophy on how you could possibly spend your finite heartbeats.  So, if you were dying as we speak, do you want to spend it complaining and hating how you don't have as much time as you'd prefer? Or are you gonna make the absolute best of it? Live, and live good. And I do not think you will be disappointed.

Oh yeah. You are dying. Whoops.

Or, if anything, you will be if you practice bad driver etiquette when I'm nearby.  Good day.

 

 

My Generation

 

Generation Y. The Millennial Generation. My generation. We range from anyone born from 1980-2000, so anyone from 12 years old to about 32. Some say that the future for us is dark. I like to think differently. I couldn't help but notice the facts, though. They're interesting, I'll be honest, and I'm quite amazed at some of them. You ready for them? Chances are that if you're reading this you're a member of Generation Y. (For the record, most of these facts are about the American Generation Y).

We've grown up with 9/11, school shootings, and the recent Colorado shooting. We have some of the highest amounts of student debt than any other generation before us. We're also more racially diverse than any other generation but in 2008, only 40% of us were seeking education after high school, the study done on graduates who were from the age 18-24 at that time. Apparently, younger Caucasians are twice as likely to graduate from college than African Americans and Hispanics combined (22% to 11%).

13% of us that are students in high school do not work. 33% of graduates are working at what they consider their life time career. 36% depend on financial support from their families (this is graduated millennials), including 14% of all the mils that are working full time. A little over half of us pay our monthly bills on time. On average, we carry three more credit cards than our previous generation, and one out of every five of us have credit debt of around $10,000. 60% of workers, when losing or changing jobs, from the ages of 24 to 32 today have now cashed out their 401(k) retirement plans, which isn't a good thing because that brings about tax penalties and squanders your retirement funds. 2/3's of us have and will graduate with student loan debt.

93% of all of us use the internet regularly while 75% have a social networking account. 41% only own a cell phone and no land line. 50% of YouTube users are in our generation. 1 out of every 5 of us have posted a video of ourselves online.

40% of us have tattoos. Just 2% of Generation Y males are military veterans. At a comparable stage of their life cycle, 6% of Gen Xer men, 13% of Baby Boomer men and 24% of Silent Generation men were veterans.

Our generation is supposedly smothered in student debt. And the numbers say that a third depend on their parents, while half still don't pay their bills on time.

I was always told as a younger kid when I wouldn't exactly appreciate something for what it was worth or, frankly, when I was being a little brat, "Just wait 'till you grow up and face the real world." Is this the real world that we're supposed to face? My generation is being put up against the highest costs of living, the highest costs for education, and the highest costs for medical care. We're going to inherit this debt of trillions of dollars that our nation's brought on and the couple billion dollar deficit with this state.

The school of my dreams? It would've cost me about $68,000 to attend for four years, including the interest. That's in fifteen years of paying back $300-ish a month. And those are the private loans at a semi-decent interest rate.

You see, there's a reason why I'm involved in politics. Many reasons, and this is one of them. And I'm not saying it's impossible to succeed. Because it definitely is something anyone can do. I think, though, that it needs to change. Politically, yes.

But my generation, the Millennials, the Y-Generation, needs to start fighting. There needs to be a change in the way we're choosing to live our lives.

Some of us spend hundreds of dollars on clothing. We buy jeans that cost at least forty to fifty bucks a pair, socks that cost five bucks a pair, and shoes that cost close to a hundred. The youngest girls of the Millennials look twice their age with the ton of make up on their faces, and I know at least a half dozen sixteen year-olds that drink regularly with other high school friends.

Most of the Millenials that are my age almost expect things to be handed to them. Food on the table, a car, college, you name it. I'm not trying to make myself better than anyone else nor do I believe I know better. Also, I'm completely generalizing. And I'm not perfect either.

What I'm trying to say is that this world expects something out of us. It expects more than us to just sit around and wait for things to look good for us, and finally do something. In fact, I think this nation is demanding that the Y-Generation does something huge about the way things are going for it, and the rest of the world for that matter.

When I'm an adult, I don't want to have to sit down at dinner with my children and turn off the news because America is now 40 trillion dollars in debt, gas prices are over ten bucks a gallon, and I can barely afford the food they're eating. I don't want to be scared for their futures, and be in a defeated acceptance of my own-- if I were going to make them succeed, I'd have to work till the day I die.

We're faced with crashing economy, unemployment highs, and a nation led by politicians that would rather point fingers, argue, and blame each other than work together to find any solutions. This is all true, yet most of us are more concerned with who'll get the Grammy Award, what singer will win American Idol, and how another star overdosed on drugs and died tragically.

And that gets more publicity than the soldier who lays down his life to save his platoon, leaving his children fatherless, and wife a widow.

We need to start caring more about not just our future, but the rest of this nation's. And I know a lot of you still want to have fun. Especially the youngest. I'm directing this at the young adults around my age. You guys can complain about what the adults are doing. And blame them for doing nothing to stop the crisis headed our direction in the years to come. Don't be a hypocrite and partake in that same inaction.

Do something.

I'm going to end this before I start going overboard. Frankly, this upsets me too much.

Here's a quote from a very smart man.

"Always, we hear the cry from teenagers: 'What can we do, where can we go?' My answer is this: Go home. Mow the lawn, wash the windows, learn to cook, build a raft, get a job, visit the sick, study your lessons, and when you're finished, read a book. Your town does not owe you recreational facilities and your parents do not owe you fun. The world does not owe you a living; you owe the world something. You owe it your time, energy, and talent so that no one will be at war, in sickness, or lonely again. In other words, grow up, stop being a cry baby, and get out of your dream world. Develop a backbone, not a wish bone. Start behaving like a responsible person. You are important and you are needed. It's too late for you to sit around waiting for somebody to do something, someday. Someday is now, and that somebody is you!"

He's so right, too. You're worth something, you have enormous potential to do something, and there's a lot of something you can give if you choose to. Someday is now, and that somebody is you. So do something, contribute, and start changing the world and the direction it's going in. I won't say whether it'll go south or north, but I know our generation, the Millennials , can change that.

PS; this is a totally general rant. I'm not saying we're all inactive and such, it's just that there aren't enough of us who are active. FIN.