Talkin' 'bout our generation?

As cheesy as it is, I'd like to start this off with Kelly Clarkson lyrics that I have come to hate due to misjudgement on the part of singers during morning assembly.

Grew up in a small town
And when the rain would fall down
I'd just stare out my window....

This is indeed relevant. I actually grew up in a fairly large town, but it wasn't bustling with activity. North Edison was always fairly quiet, very pleasant and very nice. Boring as my childhood was, I still remember it as the fantasy town that they show in TV. Kind of like Wisteria Lane, only with normal Asian people instead of dramatic and beautiful white women. And life was fairly quiet and normal until one fateful Tuesday when I was in the fifth grade. I got called to the office and sent home with my mom. I spent the rest of the day at home with her and my brother watching the same image over and over on the news: the Twin Towers falling. The United States went into shock. All of our relatives in India went into shock. My aunt and uncle and my brother and parents and I were shocked.

I think that was the beginning of it. We were all ten years old, maybe eleven. You and me and anyone else reading this. More stuff happened as time went on. The war on Iraq. More blasts here in India. More dead bodies. More children getting sent to the psychiatrist. More teenagers cutting themselves. More rapes. More celebrities and role models doing drugs and going to prison. More newspapers celebrating and praising inanity. More forms of media glorifying indecency. More of us being influenced by it in one way or another. More Catholic priests molesting children. More churches fighting against everyday concepts. More people dying because they happened to be born the wrong way. In Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Perhaps its not more. Perhaps we are only more aware of it. To me, it is more. And it is far too much. Yesterday was a day I could only describe as carefree. My friends and I had fun. We spent a day doing nothing of any consequence. I mean, I got my info for my bio case study, but other than that, it was pretty much a useless day. And I got home to find out that there were two bomb blasts in this city, one in a place with some fond memories. A close friend of mine was in a somewhat freaked-out state of mind. It just...I couldn't comprehend it.

This morning, I was going to music class to see that a lot of the shops usually open at that time were closed. Music class was cancelled. The area looked friggin' empty. Every mall was closed. City Center was closed. Almost every shop in Madhapur is closed. School is cancelled for the next two days. The city that I know to be so bursting with life seemed to...gone. It only hit home this morning what happened. The papers were filled with gory pictures of injured kids. And Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi have apparently condemned the act. As if someone gave a speech condoning the act. Idiots.

Aside from the stupidity of certain politicians, something occured to me. Are these the events that will mark our generation? Is this what the textbooks will pinpoint when they write the history of this era? An exponetial increase in disturbed teens and terrorist acts and propaganda of "the free world" ? Are these the "exciting stories" we'll relate to our grandchildren? God. I know that this doesn't actually have much of a point. Its more of random thoughts that I tried to put down in an organized manner.

I don't think it really worked out...but still. What will people remember? Between Paris Hilton, anti-Potters, and people dying, the overall picture of our time as teenagers--it doesn't look so good.