New Year, New Outlook

It’s time for New Years resolutions again. And in a month, it’s time for those resolutions to be forgotten again. As twentysomethings, our generation is more concerned with adventures, living life to the fullest, doing what we want when we want, being independent, not being afraid of new things, and having big dreams. We don’t need resolutions, we need something to look forward to.

So, here’s a proposition: no more resolutions; make dreams happen instead. 

Making resolutions are a thing of the past. You can make a resolution any time, and, honestly, summer is usually when people really kick it into high gear for the health resolutions anyway. You don’t plan for swimsuit season until it is swimsuit season. So instead, set new dreams for the year. A bucket list of sorts. Don’t worry about changing something about yourself, but rather, make additions to your life. We stay young until we are no more.

Here are some ideas for you, twentysomethings out there.

1. Plan some travel time  

2. Try something you always wanted to [sky diving, hot air balloon rides, trying out a new sport, trying a new talent/hobby, etc.]

3. Make new friends

4. Take a chance with your career

5. Rewrite your story 

6. Raise your standards [ with relationships, careers, expectations]

7. Find a cause to support [ human rights, environmentalism, disease awareness, etc.]

 

So, find some thing that will satisfy one – or many – of your dreams. This is the year for dreams to come true and for happiness to win. This is the year to do something exciting, do something memorable, do something to better you. 

 

Happy {almost} 2016

 

xOx

 

A Letter to Future Generations

Dear Future Generations,

It was not always like this. We did not always have so many mass shootings. We did not always turn to a gun to solve our problems. We were not always immune to such breaking news.

News agencies reporting the latest shooting used to be a major, once-in-a-blue-moon event. People used to completely stop what they were doing and watch the news. There was a time when less people were impacted by such events.

We are sorry. We are sorry for the fighting. We are sorry for the everyday shootings that never make the news. We are sorry for the brutality against your loved ones. We are sorry that we could not find a solution. We are sorry for only  debating among ourselves, and making this a political topic rather than a saving-lives topic. We are sorry for wanting to ignore the problem instead of facing the facts. We are sorry for not working together to make a safer society for you.

You see, such shootings were large events that caused the nation to stop what they are doing and send aide to those communities impacted. Violence, specifically gun violence, has increased beyond imagination in just the last 5 decades. In 2012, the Aurora Movie Theater shooting rocked our news and our minds. Was there any place safe? Then the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting ripped through our entire nation and help was immediately sent to Newtown, Connecticut. How could our children and future generations be mercilessly gunned down?

And now, we have seen three mass shooting in only a few months time. Oregon Community College, Planned Parenthood in Colorado, and now San Bernardino. How many more must die before something changes, you ask? Hopefully no more. But again, we are sorry to all those children who lost a parent to a shooting, to all the parents who will never see their child grow up, to all the husbands and wives who are thankful for the few years they did have with their spouse, to all of those who remember the last time they saw their best friends, to all of those families who will never be full again. We are sorry.

Who can we blame? The shooters themselves. The media for stirring up the intensity of mass shootings but ignoring every day gun violence. The policymakers for debating and making everything partisan. Us for just thinking this will go away. Or is this just the new way of society? Let us hope not. We cannot allow violence to become an everyday occurrence.

Future generations, we will try to change the ways of fear. Society today has advanced much further than it has in past decades, so we hope to advance our standards, too.

We hope you are still believing in us.

Sincerely,

Your predecessors