When our generation meets...

I felt bored as a youngster by anything repeated. That is why I spend a lot of my class hours doodling rather than paying attention to the lectures, which eventually hone some creative and out-of-the-box thinking as I grow older. Math was less attractive, and exercise was more like torment. I'd do the absolute minimum to get by. Sometimes I would laugh out of silence when I reflect how I ended up a career in engineering and academia from not loving math as a child.

I can remember, back then, that my mom scolded me every time I paid less attention during our tutoring. By report card time, I'd be sitting on the side of my mother with 75 printed on my report card, hoping for her to scold me, but she didn't. My parents don't force us to get good grades, but they will remind us to, at least, get better so that we will not fail. As I get to a higher level, I finally find some groves with my academics as I enjoy the lesson, and it seems not as repetitive as ever.

Why is it so good for us to enjoy whatever we do? We used to do things because we had to do it. Sometimes we forget to enjoy the journey and the experience of doing it. That is why I find it unjust and a bit oppressive for someone trying to manipulate me. Every minute, someone is out there telling us about how things used to be, emphasizing the common civility back then. Some go on about how things are so different back then.

Whatever was overflowing in their day seemed to have run out when It came to us, and no one paused to consider why we ended up the way we did. Yes, we did grow a lot. Is it conceivable that what you thought was so lovely back then was less than perfect to date? That we are the ones striving to rebuild what remained of our human decency. Is it conceivable that we sometimes refuse to open our eyes and see what we fight? We came a long way. Our humanity has progressed in an immeasurable amount.

If we always second guess ourselves, we can't break away from stubborn criticism. As we give it a close look, we would realize that there are no sides. What they experienced before is valid as what we experience now. Progress is constant, and adaptation must be our outcry. We fight for everything that earlier generations fought for, but not in the same way. We fight for freedom, innovation, and sustainability, not for conquest.

We fight for what we find right opportunities for ourselves and everyone. To do what we enjoy most. We should stop apologizing for not fitting into the social mold, influenced by millennia by people who knew far less about ourselves and the progress we have been. To strive to understand rather than to condemn.

We strive for freedom with love, intending to go beyond tolerance. We are fighting for human interaction. It appears that this is not the case, given our constant contact with gadgets, but the goal is to not close ourselves off from the rest of the world. We aspire to bridge the gaps between our journeys to places and the people who we put so much care. For those of us who love someone across the seas and sky, thanks to technology, we can bridge the gap with words and photos transmitted in an instant. Our social media allow us to find ourselves and connect with people until we find one another again is the greatest consolation we have.

And we have the option to turn away, unfollow, or decide that what we're seeing isn't for us. We can swipe right or meet up using a dating up. Oldie may call it generational issues that they labeled out-of-grace from what must be from their norms, but it is what it is. Progress allows us to meet people beyond physical barriers. However, we are allowed to interact with anybody who may comprehend how we feel. It is what we know, and this is what progress is.

Technology and progress allow us to fight for love more than romantic. We are the ones who lived with parents who made sacrifices they swallowed in the cause of family in an age of separations and divorce. A time was marriage and forever is uncertain. We've seen what happens when people do what they need to do. We see how resentment that blooms like a mustard seed. There are fairy tales, and then there are things that don't work at all. One thing is sure: progress allows us to strive and thrive in a world where everything is uncertain.

Sometimes the most difficult decision is whether we should grow up and adapt to change or be stagnant and swallowed by progress. Sometimes progress also creates a generational choice whether a child must grow up in a loveless family or in two different houses where each parent does their damnedest to be there. We constantly need to decide among our choices, and we should be apt to make a decision. Like to live a little bit more before we bind ourselves to someone else, to be the best person we can be before we are held responsible for someone else's pleasure or even someone else's life.

We are fighting for success. But as I grow older, I have come to assess success not only in terms of giggles and money but, more significantly, in terms of joy and having inner peace. Progress has been part of the process of understanding success isn't always about wealth. It can be beyond that, something immeasurable like the universe. There is no comfort so great that it necessitates us to lose our humanity and dignity or lose the ability to pursue what we genuinely love. Doing what we need to keep a passion burning, to have a purpose in life, and to inspire enthusiasm in others is a success.

We battle for knowledge despite when the world's information is at our fingertips. We always find the right to ask questions and seek answers. Progress programmed us to never be happy and content with what is in front of us, but always searching, continually learning, and comprehending our insignificant role in the vastness of our universe. Maybe, we can be the relevant dot in the universe.

Progress influences us to be on the go. We forget to enjoy and drown ourselves in unending routines. We always find places that we can refuge from our busyness. We work to seek a sanctuary that encourages us to take the slower pace. We seek a better place for every varied personality and need. We may be self-indulgent at times, but we urge everyone to do the same so that we may all have a better knowledge of who we are and what we can do. We are more than the selfish brats that our oldies accuse us of being since we lack their generational norm and redefine what we say we lack.

We are in a world filled with wounds, blood, hatred, and debt, and instead of waiting to the future to make amends, we must begin now. We don't lack growth. We are just indecisive in making ourselves better. We are working for happy, well-adjusted people who grasp the true power of love and truth and have the ability to transform the landscape of what we know.

As we struggle to say back in my day without a tinge of guilt but pride of how progress changed, we assure that what we are doing today can change the future and become a utopia we envisioned. Our future is brighter and full of more potential than we could ever fathom. We battle for that sliver of guilt in our hearts explaining the span of our misunderstood existence and experience. We can make a difference.

All illustration is created by the author.

1. Jill Sultie, How is Technology Shaping Romance?

2. Elza Venter, Bridging the communication gap between Generation Y and the Baby Boomer generation