We’ve heard the clichés about how different our generation is from all of our predecessors, the millennials they call us, and the tone they use isn’t always friendly. Whether it be our superiors, our parents, or our elders, the older generations have taken a liking to defining us as an over-connected and entitled group of young adults. Are they right? Think about yourself as an individual. Do you ever get angry at the grocery store whenever the line is 10 people deep? Maybe you think to yourself, “I have some place important to be. This line is ridiculous, and I do not have time for these tacky people in front of me. How dare these people be in front of me right now?”
Does this sound familiar at all? I know it did to me whenever my English teacher lectured on this selfishness this past week in my lit class. We were discussing the commencement speech David Foster Wallace gave to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College, and she encouraged us to think introspectively about if we could relate to the examples Wallace gave of impatience, selfishness, and entitlement in his speech.
My personal favorite example was the grocery store line, only because I have actually had that conversation in my head more times than I would like to admit, but what are some others? If you’re not a reader, then you probably won’t finish reading this article, and immediately go look up the speech that I am referring to, but I really wish you would because Wallace does an impeccable job of illustrating the way that too many of us in today’s world have grown accustomed to treating each other when our paths cross. We’ve got the road-ragers who flip everyone the bird who dare to pull out in front of them, or you have the guy who’s judging the road-rager for being such a jerk, but at the end of the day, it’s all the same to me. Why?
Because every single complaint that will be made in these types of situations will almost always start with the words “I” or “me,” and if they don’t, then it’s going to be in there somewhere, so don’t deny it. We have developed an entirely too self-centered culture, and it has to stop. I mean it. This has got to end. I don’t want to be the generation that developed the complex of blaming the victim in a rape case because it was too hard to find the perpetrator, and I do not want to be a part of the crowd that constantly acts like the rest of the world owes something to us. If someone is in line in front of you at the grocery store, stop, and get some perspective. Why are you there? You need food. So, why are they in front of you? Because they needed food, too, and all they did was get there before you did. Wallace isn’t the first person to have this epiphany, neither am I, and neither are you.
So, the question is this: Why are we still so pissed whenever the line is long at the grocery store? That answer is easy, and it will always remain the same. We are an impatient race that has devoted its time to progression and quick fixes. We rest happily and overweight in a place that glorifies fast food and a diet pill, but not exercise and dedication. But, you’ve heard all of this before, so why am I griping about it? That answer is simple, too, and it will probably, but not hopefully, always stay the same also because it hasn’t changed. None of this has changed in the decade since Wallace’s commencement speech, and it didn’t change before that, so why? You might not be able to save the world as one individual, but you can start doing yourself a favor, and start asking the question “Why?" a whole lot more often. Don’t be a bystander to your life. Ask questions, and take the time to pay attention to what is going on inside of you.
In his speech to Kenyon College that year, Wallace began with a story, “There are two fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them, and says, ‘Morning, boys, how’s the water?’ And, the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually, one of them looks over at the other, and goes, ‘What the hell is water?'" Let’s not be so caught up in ourselves that we don’t know what water is because that’s whenever we will know that we truly are what some of our predecessors believe to be true.
