Our Previous Generations As Sheep example essay topic

The Youth of Today: A Misunderstood Generation Previous generations have set expectations for today's youth, stating that those born between 1979 and 1994, my generation, the Y generation, can easily be categorized into stereotypical groups. My generation is prejudged with stereotypical labels such as the lazy generation, the rebellious generation, and even the violent generation, each label more degrading as the extensive list continues. The previous living generations which are composed of Generation X, the Baby boomers, Silent generation, and the WWII Generation, have set such a standard that is socially unacceptable for my generation today. The perspective of one's morality has changed through the years clouding the previous generations' ability to foresee the potential of my generation. With each appointed demeaning title, my generation only grows stronger. Often criticized as slackers, "Y" kids are nonetheless characterized as lazy, spoiled, and indifferent.

Our generation does have many opportunities for success, I agree; as did the preceding generations. But unlike the previous generation, which was underemployed and pessimistic about its economic future, my generation is terrestrial and optimistic about its prospects. Certainly Generation Y, as a group, is more wanted, cherished, and often overprotected by their parents, as we should be. Today's youth must face everyday dangers such as drugs, violence, and even terrorism. As we have shown, my generation approaches these hazards with great poise. We are a pretentious group.

We set goals and intend to exceed them. My generation is indeed hard working. Nine out of ten college freshmen have specific goals for the next five years of their lives. Seventy five percent of them have done volunteer work in the past year. Two out of three say a career helping others is more important to them than one who produces an immense amount of income. Many of my peers are employed with a job, while managing a full time schedule at school.

Generation Y is very much alive and even passionate about their views and values. We are leaders. We are the future. Torn, baggy clothes, inverted baseball caps, colored hair, body piercing, and tattoos are often personified by previous generations as symbols of diminutive intellectual capacity. Preceding generations see my generation as rebellious, or delinquent, if you will. Body piercing and / or tattoos are merely emblems of our identity.

These attachments are often used as clever Millennial decoys - symbols designed to conceal huge reserves of guile, determination, and worldliness. Indeed, our elders are correct. We are "rebels". Perhaps this is because we are not disciples of previous generations. My father once told me a story that I now relate to our previous generations: Once there was a herd of sheep. This herd of sheep spent the majority of the day grazing in the pastures and doing everyday 'sheep' activities.

The thing about sheep is that they tend to follow, or imitate the other sheep around them. The sheep were grazing in the pasture near a steep cliff. One of the sheep got too close to the edge and plummeted to its death to the jagged bottom. The other sheep saw this and one by one, each sheep, following their now deceased companion, each walked off the edge of the cliff.

"What's the moral to the story", my father asks me. When I have no response, he answers his own question, "Don't be a sheep". My father had a good point. "Don't be a sheep".

Though those sheep knew the consequences of walking off that cliff, they did it anyways. I would classify our previous generations as sheep. History continues to repeat itself. As oppose to learning from past generations' mistakes, the next generation continues to mimic the mistakes of those before them. My generation will not be referred to as sheep. The youth of today know the mistakes of those in the past, and have learned from them.

Consequently, we are labeled as incompliant. Indeed, we are. We are a generation of self-confidence and independence. We set our goals and reach for our dreams. Generation Y is composed of variety, and a scrimmage for identity, not one composed merely of sheep. The generation of today has even been described as the "Angry / Violent Generation".

In the late '90's, we were implicated as a disturbed and violent generation when Paducah, Littleton, Springfield, and Conyers grabbed the headlines. But it must be understood that these tragedies were due to a select few, a few bad apples in which every generation contains. Generation Y grew up with the specters of crack cocaine, designer drugs, and the AIDS epidemic. They watched terrorism become a U.S. phenomenon with the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City, and Atlanta Summer Olympics bombings.

They were bombarded with violence-packed video games and sexually charged advertising, television and movies. Still, the last I have heard on the news, crime rates in teens are at a plummet, including teen drug use, teen drunk driving accidents, and teen suicide rate is lower than it has been in decades. Rather than being described as a negligent, delinquent, violent generation, the generation of my peers and I should be characterized as ambitious, independent, and optimistic. Give us all the smug expressions you please. Compose your conversations of unfair criticism directed toward my generation. Life is unfair.

We can take it. The youth of today is irrefragable. What doesn't kill us will only make us stronger. matthew morris.