Hope? (My Plan to Possibly Change the World)

I'm not convinced that there actually is a complete lack of hope in today's adolescents. I think that the domino effect of depression works against us. Maybe I'm not the best person to ask - I'm probably the least hopeful person you'll ever meet. Perfectionism does that to you.

However, I don't believe that the world will necessarily be worse in 100 years (though, if the apocalypse comes... hardeeharhar). I don't always think that I will lead the world to a better place, but I believe I have the power to. Saying there's no hope in the world means that you believe there's no hope for yourself... which I can definitely relate to, but don't agree with in a hardcore sense.

The future belongs to us, but not everyone agrees on what a good future is. What defines a "better" future? At this point, I'm not sure what would make a better future... but there are some things that would help for sure.

Peace would always be good, yeah, and maybe we have the power to do that. Maybe being a little bit nicer to people, connecting a little more, making that little bit of effort. A friend once mentioned to me that a smile can change the world... maybe smiling more would help us out. Maybe smiling more would give us a little more hope.

Or maybe less judgement? Less hate might give us some more hope. Respecting people could give not only the judged people, but I think the judging people as well, a little more hope.

I'd definitely like some more world awareness - Invisible Children is helping with that, at least for one aspect (great organization, BTW... if you can, donate! They're wonderful. Check 'em out). But poverty, hunger, and so many other illnesses affect people around the globe. In a better world, we'd need to fix that, and I think most people would agree.

I don't quite know what other things I'd do to make the world better. I do believe we can have a better world in 100 years, I'm just not certain we're all quite sure how.

Hope

OK how about this...What in the world has happened in this country to cause the total lack of hope I see in youth today. I remember feeling and I know I was not alone, that I could do anything, and it was my responsibility to save the world. The whole "Ask not what your country can do for you..." permeated our consciouses we had a duty to make life for others better, to battle injustice where ever we found it, and we did because we believed we could make a difference. We protested, organized and marched, I even joined the Socialist Worker Party as a college freshman, and just knew we could change the world to a peaceful utopia.

Service was a part of your life, not something you got credit for in school. You helped neighbors, worked for you school, even created fundraising events when we felt the call. This is not to pretend that we were not real narcissistic teenagers, we were often as self centered and oblivious as today's youth, but in that narcissism we had the audacity to believe we could make a difference. If asked "In 100 years will the world be better or worse?" we would have overwhelmingly responded "Better" and gone on to explain that it would be so because we were going to make it better.

I did ask my class this year why there was no hope, and one young man said there was just too much information and it consistently left them feeling small and inadequate. I still approach situations with a "What can I do to fix this" attitude while my daughters regularly focus on "Why this can never work." What has changed to make our youth feel so helpless, have we mollycoddled them, failed to inspire them, handicapped them with overprotection? Maybe all of the above? If life is leaving our youth feeling incapable what must we do to build in them a hope that will sustain. A hope that will carry them to heights we can only imagine, and through those times in life when hope is all that is left.

Daughter, thoughts?