A Charge for the Young
This is an article I wrote for my 2020–2021 school yearbook as the Student Association President. I hope it serves to inspire other kids who have had their lives shaken by the pandemic, to help us all keep moving forward, together.
For most of the world, 2020 marked the transition from life as we knew it to the new normal of masks, social distancing and near-daily Zoom sessions. Though the past year had been marred by frequent protests, life still went on for the majority of our students. School was still in session, recreational outings only meant avoiding protest hotspots, and hugs still happened. But our lives have changed dramatically since 2019 ended. The year began with news of a particular novel coronavirus outbreak, and schools adapted accordingly. For a time, business was almost as usual, with only minor changes like mask mandates and sanitizer needed to operate. But as cases rose and as global conditions led to a state of paranoia, schools jerked into preservation mode, and classes soon shifted to online operations exclusively. So began our new normal.
As we look back on 2020, do we see a year to forget? A year ruined by countless disasters, displays of the worst humanity has to offer, afflictions both personal and common to all? No doubt we have suffered. The trials we have gone through will be immortalized in our history books, and the stories we tell our children will be that of when we didn’t have to fear for our lives whenever someone coughed nearby.
But do we choose to erase this black streak from history? Should we forget the lessons we learned in this turmoil? Martin Luther once said: “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.” When we choose to forget our suffering, we choose ignorance, fantasy, to live a lie. We choose a life worth nothing, for we have suffered nothing. The Greatest Generation does not bear its name without reason. Through the Great Depression, through World War Two, they suffered. And what did they bring to the world? The Golden Age of capitalism, civil rights movements led by their children, because through all the strife and hardship they learned. They learned to persevere, to survive, and they built a better world because of it.
As we continue to handle the repercussions of an ongoing pandemic, we must not belittle the magnitude of what we are going through. Though we have not yet faced war or famine, our generation is the first in a long time to handle a pandemic of this scale. A lot of what happens is simply out of our control. Banquets, mission trips and graduation ceremonies have been cancelled. Jobs have been lost, and countless people have lost their lives. For those of Generation Z, our lives have been lost in a different way. Our plans have been scrapped. Our prospects remain uncertain. The future has us hanging on to hope by a thread.
Yet we are the ones who hold it in our hands. As young people, we have that power to shape the world before us. All we need is the drive, the initiative to do so. Modern-day movements like Black Lives Matter make this plain to see, as so much of the world came out in support of colored people, bringing light to injustices of systemic racism. Calls for police reform resonated around the globe. All accomplished amidst a raging pandemic. In doing so, we proved our propensity to lead. We proved that we can do what matters, that we can continue doing the right thing even as the world crumbles around us. We proved that we can shoulder these hard times, that we can be the next Great Generation.
For most of the world, 2020 was an awful year. No one can deny that. But what we do with it is up to us. What will you do?
Hey, you made it to the end of the article! If you liked it (or not), please leave a comment! Any constructive criticism is welcome, it’s just the beginning!
