Its amazing just how much the world has changed.
Today I was out with my Dad in Sorrento to meet up with the Grandparentals. We were sitting and having lunch in the park when we started talking about all the horrible stuff thats been going on in the world lately, and it really got me thinking about how much stuff is going wrong.
Then my Grandfather turned to me and asked me about my plans for my eighteenth birthday. I told him it was all still in the works and i hadnt really finalised anything. He then proceeded to tell me about how it was like when he turned eighteen. His father died of a bronchial infection when he was six, so his whole life he was working to help provide for his family, of which he is the youngest (Six children, Single Mother). There was nothing special done for his eighteenth birthday, just working like usual. He told me about the fact that when he married my grandmother, her father became like a father to him. So i asked about when he was eighteen. When my Great grandfather was eighteen it was during the First World War. So he didnt have one either.
Stories like my Grandfathers really put life into perspective. I'll never have to provide for my family on my own at the age of eighteen in a world that is in absolute chaos. I didnt have to live through either of the world wars, in constant fear of my life with insufficient medical supplies.
While teens of today from all over the world run to pubs to get drunk to drown their "problems", or they take drugs to be cool, or the sneak out because they feel hardly done by, the people of generations past look at us and see how much we've got going for us, and see how much we're throwing away. And its disgraceful. Not only disgraceful, but an insult to those who worked so hard to get us here.
So, As I sit in my chair and wonder in amazement about how lucky I am, i wonder whether or not anyone else has ever come to the realisation that we really are the lucky generation.
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