The youth and the society
MANILA, Philippines - Our youth is the hope of the nation. Thus said, Dr. Jose Rizal as he depends on the Filipino youth to lead the major shift the country needs for national progress. His profound hope that the youth holds the key to our national progress perfectly describes his utmost admiration and love for our nation.
A couple of days ago, I happened to see an online campaign inviting all the youth to help alleviate poverty by providing entrepreneurial ideas that will provide economic livelihood to our generation. But, can we eradicate poverty from us? I am not an Economics major but I think that poverty is not something that can be addressed by a single sector of our society. Poverty is attached to different strings of economic and political policies, demography and many other factors.
Maybe we can address and provide remedies to some economic issues but I think poverty can be addressed if our nation will be able to define a concrete goal and objective.
Does our youth still care? I am skeptic about our lethargic generation. We are a generation that is busy making babies, busy perfecting our Facebook profiles and in hashtagging. We are blinded by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and instant fame and success. Some flee our country in the hopes of finding greener grasses. Some are just sitting there comfortably not doing anything and blaming the government for not having a job.
We cannot blame them because each individual has it reasons and goals in life.
Maybe there are still young individuals and people my age who still care and who are still hoping that our nation who is always ready to take flight can now finally soar in the sky.
We, the youth, are filled with ideals and driven by our ambitions to accomplish our goals in life. We have the creativity and energy to turn things the way we want it to be. I remember a friend who once told me, “What will I do? Be upright? I have to be practical, after all if everyone does it, why can’t I? We are all eaten by this system that our forefathers have left us.”
That was quite a speech.
That made me think about the leaders in our society now. They were once individuals like us, filled with ambitions and the energy to change the world. But, what happened? I do not know.
Last night I attended a concert and I saw FEU students with posters and giving away flyers and really trying to draw attention from the crowd.
I asked these two girls about what they were doing.
“Are you from TamVol?” I asked.
“We are volunteers.” They replied.
“I meant was, are you from Tamaraw Volunteer? Because I am an alumnus of FEU. What are you promoting?”
“We are from (I forgot the organization) that helps people with Leukemia.”
“Ohh that is nice. What are your courses?”
“We are both Advertising majors.”
“Good. Keep it up.”
There I ended up the conversation with them and headed inside the coliseum. I realized that there are still young individuals who believe that by their little efforts, they can make a change. Maybe our generation is mixed up, maybe our attention is way too fast that we don’t know which one should be prioritized. Maybe we are caught up by the demands of our time that we are losing our sense of being in the society. Maybe we think that our options are endless, limitless and that we have all the time of our lives to pick which one suits us best.
Whatever might be the reasons, I hope we won’t run out of energy to dream and to do our part and role in nation building. At least, Rizal would not be wrong in laying his hopes to our hands.
