Who Were You Before the World Told You?

By Meredith McDevitt on February 28, 2017

Who were you before society gave you a small box to fit into, before the world stereotyped you as a human being, before people judged you on the categories you were placed in?

Whether you identify yourself through your personality, work ethic, or values, the world will identify you with your race, gender, socioeconomic class, and even physical ability. The importance of authenticity seems to be lost within today’s societies and throughout newer generations.

Our millennial generation is future-oriented and only creates hopes and dreams centered around salary, work benefits, and opportunities within our careers. We’re hyper-organized or routinized, scheduling times to call our own mothers and trying to pencil in fun activities to do in our planners. We have a different relationship to authority figures, we want to make our parents proud over anything self-related, and we view authority figures as peers. Lastly, we seek leadership, yet often lack the tool of trust; we are the least trustworthy generation so far. Our daily walks of authenticity are nonexistent. Our skin color, outfit choices, wealth, and non-American traditions seem to define us more than our actual authenticity.

With the society our generation has constructed, social change is a necessity that leaders must take advantage of. However, the concept of life and living an authentic journey must be dynamic. What do I mean by dynamic? A lively and powerful mindset towards life with eliminating the boxes and categories society has placed people in is the resolution towards the ignorant and inaccurate descriptions and stereotypes the world told people to be.  Additionally, evolving self-awareness and trust leads to the critical social change that is vital for life. Trusting your peers and community within social change and well-being is the formula towards the dynamic journey of life.

People asking about an easier nickname offend the students with non-American names interviewing for jobs. White supremacy stays lashing out at the black community just for voicing their pride in heritage and segregation experiences. Lower socio-economic class students are working three jobs on campus on top of schoolwork and can’t afford a business casual outfit for a college career fair. One in five girls are sexually assaulted on campus, however, can’t file a police report without being slut-shammed and hold a constant fear of not being believed. All of these scenarios happen every day in society, especially on a college campus; however, our generation stays future-driven, career-driven, and money-driven when we need to be changing the way the world restricts us and help those in need around us.

Finding the daily walk of authenticity, trusting people, and having self-awareness and well-being can be the steps to a successful generation eliminating the societal categories and stereotypes. Finding the passion for social change is simple because it is directly in front of you.

image via (google.com)

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