6.10.10

Removing Our Beer Goggles to Claim Social Responsibility

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A GENERALIZATION OF PRIVILEGED COLLEGE STUDENTS IN THE U.S. AND DOES NOT CAPTURE MY PERSONAL OPINION as a responsible and mature female.
Back at Holy Cross, seniors are having a good time.  Between the academic load (brutal reality after being abroad) and applying to jobs, we are actually seizing every opportunity to go to bars or day drink... which could seem inappropriate to employers or our tuition paying parents.  It is, however, our last year of college, freedom and, essentially, youth.  

To many of the college-crazed, college is better than "real life" for the following reasons:
1.) We consume alcohol almost daily without dealing with workplace repercussions of getting fired for lack of productivity.
2.) We hang out with our friends 24/7.
3.) We selfishly don't have huge bills or taxes to pay, or mouths to feed.
4.) We do not sit at a desk from 9-5.
5.) We live in dingy dirty apartments and it is socially acceptable.
6.) We are sexually promiscuous, experimental and independent.
7.) We still have relatively active metabolisms.
8.) Middle aged adults enjoy letting loose with us to feel young, thus we freeload at events like tailgates and birthday dinners.
9.) We are the marketing world's target for fashion trends and can interpret the hottest looks however we please.
****10.) And what I find most important is our duty, as free-thinking, well-educated visionaries, to expand the minds of politicians, institutions and our elders.  We graduate from college as soldiers of justice, serving our communities as global citizens.

 SO in our final year of college freedom and ultimately AFTER COLLEGE, what are we to do?

Are we joining grassroots political movements to save the environment? Are we protesting the war like the hippies before us opposed Vietnam? Are we living thriftly and earning our living through hard-earned labor? NOPE. It's no wonder the working class sees us as spoiled undeserving brats when we enter the work place expecting great responsibility and annual pay raises.

I am challenging my generation to harness their Christian good will, education and privilege.  To have a positive impact on our communities to better ourselves and each other.  Read newspapers, connect with people of different cultures, races, classes.  Reach out to those who bear heavier economic, racial and gender burdens.
Getting cheesy- reminds me of the Michael Jackson song, Heal the World.