As every new generation of people begins their lives, they always leave something behind. With each passing of time, each generation forgets some word of wisdom handed down to them by the generation before them. For my generation, those words of wisdom speak about respect. The people in my generation do not respect themselves or anyone around them. We have come to believe that we don’t have to respect, pay homage to, or look up to anyone or anything. It’s sad. One could go so far as to assume that we have put ourselves up on a pedestal that we can‘t get off of; we are too far gone.

My generation is one of trendsetters, creative minds, and “out of the box” personalities, but we cannot be known just for that. We have to make an impact, change the world by doing something other than partying, inventing new things, and being the “wild child” of all the generations before us. At the pace we are moving, that’s not going to happen. We have forgotten what our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents taught us: to treat everyone just like we want to be treated. If our goal was to be treated disrespectfully, like trash, and like we are less than worthy of whatever we want, then we have reached it, surpassed it.

Our futures are in trouble. The attitude of my generation is not one that will last in the New Year, much less the new millennium. Not having any restraint on how we act, and no filters on some of the things we say is detrimental to our image. I love knowing that I born with these people and being a part of this generation, but love is not enough anymore. I am ashamed, for us, and we all should be. Do we really want to have to take full responsibility for, essentially being screw-ups and hoodlums? No, we don’t. I want to be able to proudly say that I am a part of a movement. I am a member of a group that invented new-age swag, and not only having a voice but using it without fear. I can’t do that right now.

What do we have to hold us together? In the end, all one has is their family, their mind, and their soul. We are slowly losing those things. My generation doesn't treat family as an essential part of survival. We feed our minds with foolishness instead of knowledge. We forget the fact that that when we leave this world, our souls have to face the repercussions of our actions.

My generation is a group of strong-minded, strong-willed, beautiful people with the potential to change the world. They just choose not to realize it. To my people, if we don’t get it together, we are going to crumble; we will crumble until there is nothing left of us but a memory and a bad reputation. We should want to be remembered for something. After we are gone, people need to know that we helped; it should be engraved in their hearts that we did our part in history.

Having respect for things and people doesn't change who we are. Respect doesn't make any of us less of a tough guy, or a party girl, or a bookworm, or anything we claim ourselves to be. It just makes us little greater. It makes us better knowing that we can do what we want but still understand that even we, the people who break down walls every day, have boundaries. So from this comes an ultimatum: either we choose to straighten up, or we choose to be a fading memory in the eyes of everyone after us.