By now, I imagine that most of you have heard the song Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer. It's quite a popular song and is rather catchy; Goddess knows how many times I've caught myself singing the chorus. Despite the popularity of the song, however, I'm going to indulge myself for a moment and post some of the lyrics... they are quite relevant to this conversation.
"me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change "
So goes the first verse and the chorus. If ever there was a song to define our generation, I believe this song to be it.
For the generation that has made people like Paris Hilton a hot commodity, that has made video-gaming a billion dollar industry, that has made extreme sports all the rage, that has helped define the largest global network (the internet), we can be quite ignorant. An extremely large portion of our generation doesn't vote, yet more than any generation before, we have the attention of our elected officials. An even larger portion of our generation has likely never considered writing a letter to the editor, and yet our generation has made significant leaps in capturing the attention of the media and holding it. Many in our generation, too many to count, have never bothered to form an opinion on world events and yet our generation has the ability to search out the facts faster and in more places than any generation before. A majority in our generation has cell phones, home phones, email capabilities and yet a majority of our generation has never contacted an elected official on an issue of importance. But, the overwhelming majority feels voiceless.
We feel helpless to bring about change... and yet it is our generation that has (arguably) changed the world faster than any generation to come before. We feel as if we do not have a voice, and yet the ears of the world are tuned to what we have to say. We feel as if we have no presence, yet the world is watching. So while we keep on waiting for the world to change, the world is changing; thanks in large part to us. We have the power to accomplish anything and yet we refuse to believe the truth in that.
As the song goes...
It's hard to beat the system, when you're standing at a distance.
So, we'll keep on waiting
and never realize that we already have the power to change the world.
Lyrics to song:
http://www.completealbumlyrics.com/lyric/130680/John+Mayer+-+Waiting+On+...
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
I actually wrote a blog entry about this exact song on the Young People For Blog (http://blog.youngpeoplefor.org/). Personally the song promotes a message that is the complete opposite of what is needed in today's generation. I think it is a great snapshot of our generation and how so many people just stand back and wait for someone else to make a difference in teh world. We need to all realize that everyone has the potential to change the world, we just need to decide how we will do that. No more waiting, we are the change the world is waiting for.
- Challenge yourself everyday, if you don't then it is a wasted day.
www.scoutbanana.org