We’ve all seen it thousands of times: 18 year olds that drive by in their oddly luxurious cars, adolescents with their designer purses and clothes, elementary school-aged kids with all of the newest, hottest technology. Although, these things get attention and seemly make people happy, more than ever we are seeing the reprecutions of our extreme capitalist society as they begin to affect people in mostly negative ways. So it makes me think, what kind is the image of money that we are portraying to people nowadays, and how is it affecting adolescents.
I have to be honest, the first day of college I was astounded and quick frankly a little alarmed at the amount of young college students driving around in $80,000 vehicles. And I wasn’t gawking at them because I was jealous. In fact, I’m perfectly happy with my car that has wracked up far more years than I have on this planet. What truly disturbed me was the fact that there were willing to gift such young beings such valuable objects. I began to wonder how this phenomenon has begun to affect the youth of today. It’s really not that hard of a question to answer. Just look around you. More and more, adolescents are being given things that are slowing taking away the true definition of success. How can we learn what success really is if we have never had to make the effort to experience the fruits of success, they are just handed to us unearned and furthermore, how can we learn to appreciate the small aspects of life is everything is handed to us on a silver platter?
The phenomenon I am truly getting at has everything to do with being over-privileged and under-aged. People are loosing the ability to be grateful. Just as I said, I see it everyday and I am sure you all do as well. I even find myself complaining about trivial things from time to time, but as of recently I have been catching myself in these moments. However, I have to admit that I was once a semi-entitled kiddo as well. I grew up always wanting the newest ipod, I was about 8 when they first came out and I absolutely had to be the first to have one. I then was always on the quest to convince my parents to buy me a phone (because “all” of the other kids at school had one). As I got into middle school I became obsessed with clothes and already knew how to slip my mother’s credit card from her purse and purchase things online. Even into high school my entitled tendencies continued with makeup and hair products that I just really couldn’t “live” without, but then something changed. I got a job and learned that making money involved long hours of hard work. I then began to realize the amount of work my parents put in to buy me the things that I spent my life longing for. And so it really hit me: I had to work hard to make money to be successful, success couldn’t be handed to you in the form of material objects. And with that, I became thankful for the things that I was given and thankful for everything in life.
I don’t want to give the wrong impression about the definition of the word success. I have learned the true definition of success in the past few years, but luckily the word “success” has a vague definition. The reason for that is YOU get to determine what success means to you. I believe that the first step to getting over this over-privileged mindset is to be thankful for all of the things you have been granted in life and realize that not everyone is as fortunate as we are and the second step is to stop assuming things don’t have to be earned. True personal success lies under all of these complicated layers of entitlement that we have built up. We just have to break these barriers down and find it for ourselves. So I challenge you all, what is your definition of success, and if you don’t have one, go find it.
I have to be honest, the first day of college I was astounded and quick frankly a little alarmed at the amount of young college students driving around in $80,000 vehicles. And I wasn’t gawking at them because I was jealous. In fact, I’m perfectly happy with my car that has wracked up far more years than I have on this planet. What truly disturbed me was the fact that there were willing to gift such young beings such valuable objects. I began to wonder how this phenomenon has begun to affect the youth of today. It’s really not that hard of a question to answer. Just look around you. More and more, adolescents are being given things that are slowing taking away the true definition of success. How can we learn what success really is if we have never had to make the effort to experience the fruits of success, they are just handed to us unearned and furthermore, how can we learn to appreciate the small aspects of life is everything is handed to us on a silver platter?
The phenomenon I am truly getting at has everything to do with being over-privileged and under-aged. People are loosing the ability to be grateful. Just as I said, I see it everyday and I am sure you all do as well. I even find myself complaining about trivial things from time to time, but as of recently I have been catching myself in these moments. However, I have to admit that I was once a semi-entitled kiddo as well. I grew up always wanting the newest ipod, I was about 8 when they first came out and I absolutely had to be the first to have one. I then was always on the quest to convince my parents to buy me a phone (because “all” of the other kids at school had one). As I got into middle school I became obsessed with clothes and already knew how to slip my mother’s credit card from her purse and purchase things online. Even into high school my entitled tendencies continued with makeup and hair products that I just really couldn’t “live” without, but then something changed. I got a job and learned that making money involved long hours of hard work. I then began to realize the amount of work my parents put in to buy me the things that I spent my life longing for. And so it really hit me: I had to work hard to make money to be successful, success couldn’t be handed to you in the form of material objects. And with that, I became thankful for the things that I was given and thankful for everything in life.
I don’t want to give the wrong impression about the definition of the word success. I have learned the true definition of success in the past few years, but luckily the word “success” has a vague definition. The reason for that is YOU get to determine what success means to you. I believe that the first step to getting over this over-privileged mindset is to be thankful for all of the things you have been granted in life and realize that not everyone is as fortunate as we are and the second step is to stop assuming things don’t have to be earned. True personal success lies under all of these complicated layers of entitlement that we have built up. We just have to break these barriers down and find it for ourselves. So I challenge you all, what is your definition of success, and if you don’t have one, go find it.
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