My life, in all its flat eccentricity involves a lot of soliloquies, and yesterday after I watched 6 TED talks, and was in the process of getting ready to pray, I imagined myself a TED speaker. It was a rare moment of pure intellectual inspiration and I recorded what I was saying instead of typing it or jotting it down because I couldn't risk losing certain concepts that formed in my brain -- I had an inner discovery about change. Change as a general factor in our lives and in our society. This was shortly after reading through an infographic about the millennial generation.
In Turkish, there is a saying along the lines of "If you call a person stupid 40 times, he will eventually believe himself to be stupid." This is the case with our generation, the millennial generation. The generation before us (the adults) and the generation before them (the seniors) keep calling us lazy, impassive, inactive, bored, detached, indifferent and disinterested. And in the end, some of us will believe that we cannot change the world, but the world can't afford that sort of a mindset right now. We can't afford to have a fraction of our generation partially hopeful, a fraction of it completely cynical, and the remaining nonchalantly stoical.
Especially at this time, we can't have people unaware of their surroundings and unwilling to act because they don't believe in their power to change the world. There are lots of challenges waiting to be tackled and every single person on the planet needs to contribute to the solutions. By calling my generation stupid and unable to accomplish anything, not only do people demotivate us but they also drag us into a black hole they have created out of their debts, racism, sexism, discrimination, wars, waste and moral corruptness.
They want us to follow their footsteps and throw ourselves into this black hole, but we won't do that. Why? Because we CAN change the world and we WILL, but the first step is to believe. We need people to understand that we ARE capable of doing that. We are capable of changing the world, and we need people to believe that. We are so much more than what the last generation was. We are capable of producing ideas outside the box that is in reality a dotted circle. We are creative and daring. More than the ones that came before us.
But, we need to believe. My generation needs to believe, and everyone else needs to support that belief. The world took a downturn before us, and the people of my generation were the promised saviors. We were born believing and we were going full speed but suddenly obstacles appeared on our road to changing the world. Suddenly people started saying "Nope, there is a speed limit to how fast you can achieve near-perfection" and "You know, you might even be underage to be on this road..."
I am foolishly realizing that people KNOW we are capable of changing the world, and they KNOW we can help them out of their black hole, but they are so proud and so arrogant, they don't want us to succeed, which makes believing the first threshold we need to step over.
A few weeks ago, I had a small debate with a university professor about what should be done about the youth to insure our paths in life. I told him that the youth needs a clear sense of direction but that alone won't solve our issues, and the environment in which the youth grow and mature needs to be appropriate. And to achieve that environment we need to also direct the parents, the teachers, the leaders, and other influences on the youth in the right direction. He told me it was easier said than done, because no matter how much we work on the youth, we can never change the parents or the teachers or the adults in general because their personalities are already set in stone.
Well, with that mindset, of course we can't. If we believe that we can change the environment, we can. And, that sounds so naive and unrealistically optimistic, but it is true. If I believe I can change these people, I will, but I DO need help. I need people who are passionate and genuinely interested in changing the world. I need people who believe they can change the world.
The professor said, these adults already shaped how they live their lives, you can't change a person's lifestyle after he is 50 years old. That is partially true because 'child is father of the man,' but people change all the time. People change over the years, people change overnight, criminals become philanthropists, football players become artists, atheists becomes theists etc.
And society accepts them wholeheartedly. We don't say 'NO. You were a criminal when you were 17 and you need to die a criminal too. You aren't allowed to help our society by being a good person and doing good things. You are forbidden to change." Since this is not the case, why don't we accept small changes in personalities and mindsets? Small perspective changes to make people more acquainted with the world and open their eyes. If I present you with a new way to view the world, your brain automatically registers that and your horizons broaden despite you. You may not have wanted to know, but as soon as you hear what I say, you cannot undo that, you can't command your brain to erase it, you can't restore to a previous version, you have gained a new frame of reference and that's all it takes.
That, is how I believe I can change the world. And, I am not the only person who believes in herself and in this generation to change the world. There may be thousands of us, but that is still not enough. The world holds 7 billion people, we need to move quicker and we need to make people believe. We need support. We need sincere individuals with the same goal. And, we start small, but in the course of time we will grow. If each impassioned individual influences (yay alliteration) 50 close friends and family, and those 50 people become a part of this huge cause to change the world, the impact will grow exponentially. Each of those 50 people can influence 50 people and if everyone continues to pay it forward, and I was the only person to start the chain reaction it would take less than 6 complete rounds of 50 people to cover the globe's population.
And, if everyone believes, imagine how creatively we will change the world. Our diversities and our different educations, cultures, backgrounds, and languages will coalesce in a unique harmony and we will change the world abstractly. And, (not to brag or anything) my generation will be the artist behind this new masterpiece, my generation will be the author of this new world. A new world where education is free, poverty is at its lowest, people aren't hungry and there is a cure for cancer. We CAN do this. But to do that, we need to start, and to start is at the heart. We need to believe, we need to find it logical to believe, and we need to act.
Everyone needs to do something in zer power. If your best ability is to tweet then tweet, if you have a lot of connections on Facebook, then share with people, if you can video blog, then become a YouTuber, make a recording, post it on Tumblr, make a collage on your wall that tells a story, take a picture of it, put it on Instagram. Use the social networking websites/apps to change the same adults who shame them. Show them we can. Show them we can change them, show them we aren't disconnected, show them we WILL change the world. Show them how easy it is for us to accomplish that.
Be inspired. Be passionate.
Because we can get the hell away from that black hole and we can start a new world on a different star. We can watch the galaxies and we can travel on the moon. Is this relevant? Yes. Every ounce of it. I am inspired, I am happy, I believe. I believe that every word I type on this blog, every photograph I share, every single line I draw in my sketch book contributes to something. Something I believe in. Something that will change the world.
Yours truly,
A fervent Belle
In Turkish, there is a saying along the lines of "If you call a person stupid 40 times, he will eventually believe himself to be stupid." This is the case with our generation, the millennial generation. The generation before us (the adults) and the generation before them (the seniors) keep calling us lazy, impassive, inactive, bored, detached, indifferent and disinterested. And in the end, some of us will believe that we cannot change the world, but the world can't afford that sort of a mindset right now. We can't afford to have a fraction of our generation partially hopeful, a fraction of it completely cynical, and the remaining nonchalantly stoical.
Especially at this time, we can't have people unaware of their surroundings and unwilling to act because they don't believe in their power to change the world. There are lots of challenges waiting to be tackled and every single person on the planet needs to contribute to the solutions. By calling my generation stupid and unable to accomplish anything, not only do people demotivate us but they also drag us into a black hole they have created out of their debts, racism, sexism, discrimination, wars, waste and moral corruptness.
They want us to follow their footsteps and throw ourselves into this black hole, but we won't do that. Why? Because we CAN change the world and we WILL, but the first step is to believe. We need people to understand that we ARE capable of doing that. We are capable of changing the world, and we need people to believe that. We are so much more than what the last generation was. We are capable of producing ideas outside the box that is in reality a dotted circle. We are creative and daring. More than the ones that came before us.
But, we need to believe. My generation needs to believe, and everyone else needs to support that belief. The world took a downturn before us, and the people of my generation were the promised saviors. We were born believing and we were going full speed but suddenly obstacles appeared on our road to changing the world. Suddenly people started saying "Nope, there is a speed limit to how fast you can achieve near-perfection" and "You know, you might even be underage to be on this road..."
I am foolishly realizing that people KNOW we are capable of changing the world, and they KNOW we can help them out of their black hole, but they are so proud and so arrogant, they don't want us to succeed, which makes believing the first threshold we need to step over.
A few weeks ago, I had a small debate with a university professor about what should be done about the youth to insure our paths in life. I told him that the youth needs a clear sense of direction but that alone won't solve our issues, and the environment in which the youth grow and mature needs to be appropriate. And to achieve that environment we need to also direct the parents, the teachers, the leaders, and other influences on the youth in the right direction. He told me it was easier said than done, because no matter how much we work on the youth, we can never change the parents or the teachers or the adults in general because their personalities are already set in stone.
Well, with that mindset, of course we can't. If we believe that we can change the environment, we can. And, that sounds so naive and unrealistically optimistic, but it is true. If I believe I can change these people, I will, but I DO need help. I need people who are passionate and genuinely interested in changing the world. I need people who believe they can change the world.
The professor said, these adults already shaped how they live their lives, you can't change a person's lifestyle after he is 50 years old. That is partially true because 'child is father of the man,' but people change all the time. People change over the years, people change overnight, criminals become philanthropists, football players become artists, atheists becomes theists etc.
And society accepts them wholeheartedly. We don't say 'NO. You were a criminal when you were 17 and you need to die a criminal too. You aren't allowed to help our society by being a good person and doing good things. You are forbidden to change." Since this is not the case, why don't we accept small changes in personalities and mindsets? Small perspective changes to make people more acquainted with the world and open their eyes. If I present you with a new way to view the world, your brain automatically registers that and your horizons broaden despite you. You may not have wanted to know, but as soon as you hear what I say, you cannot undo that, you can't command your brain to erase it, you can't restore to a previous version, you have gained a new frame of reference and that's all it takes.
That, is how I believe I can change the world. And, I am not the only person who believes in herself and in this generation to change the world. There may be thousands of us, but that is still not enough. The world holds 7 billion people, we need to move quicker and we need to make people believe. We need support. We need sincere individuals with the same goal. And, we start small, but in the course of time we will grow. If each impassioned individual influences (yay alliteration) 50 close friends and family, and those 50 people become a part of this huge cause to change the world, the impact will grow exponentially. Each of those 50 people can influence 50 people and if everyone continues to pay it forward, and I was the only person to start the chain reaction it would take less than 6 complete rounds of 50 people to cover the globe's population.
And, if everyone believes, imagine how creatively we will change the world. Our diversities and our different educations, cultures, backgrounds, and languages will coalesce in a unique harmony and we will change the world abstractly. And, (not to brag or anything) my generation will be the artist behind this new masterpiece, my generation will be the author of this new world. A new world where education is free, poverty is at its lowest, people aren't hungry and there is a cure for cancer. We CAN do this. But to do that, we need to start, and to start is at the heart. We need to believe, we need to find it logical to believe, and we need to act.
Everyone needs to do something in zer power. If your best ability is to tweet then tweet, if you have a lot of connections on Facebook, then share with people, if you can video blog, then become a YouTuber, make a recording, post it on Tumblr, make a collage on your wall that tells a story, take a picture of it, put it on Instagram. Use the social networking websites/apps to change the same adults who shame them. Show them we can. Show them we can change them, show them we aren't disconnected, show them we WILL change the world. Show them how easy it is for us to accomplish that.
Be inspired. Be passionate.
Because we can get the hell away from that black hole and we can start a new world on a different star. We can watch the galaxies and we can travel on the moon. Is this relevant? Yes. Every ounce of it. I am inspired, I am happy, I believe. I believe that every word I type on this blog, every photograph I share, every single line I draw in my sketch book contributes to something. Something I believe in. Something that will change the world.
Yours truly,
A fervent Belle