Translator: Liseth Mendez
Reviewer: Denise RQ
Every older generation always thinks
that the new generation
is some kind of inferior
product or something.
I'm pretty sure that everyone here
has or their parents or their grandparents
or someone else in their family launched
into that classic, "Kids these days."
a certain negative stereotype here
kind of a spirit, right?
I'm pretty confident everyone's heard
some kind of variation on that.
So, what specifically is our generation
being stereotyped with?
Well, young people today
are often labelled negatively
as the self absorbed generation
who likes nothing but their iPhones.
Well, people conveniently overlook
the fact that many middle aged adults
are engaging in the exact same behaviors
that are being pick sole upon youths.
Because when I look at my generation,
I don't see all 
of these negative connotations
that people are so worried about.
I see people who are joining bands,
who are making music, who are creating
art, and working jobs in volunteering,
innovating, and who are
playing active roles
in their communities every day.
They wake up, and they go out,
and they push the boundaries of society,
and they push their personal
boundaries, constantly.
What we are is
a generation of opportunity.
Youth today have
so much more opportunity
in regards to so many things
other generations never even thought of.
Today, we are able to be honest about
who we are in regards to our appearances,
our personalities, and our sexualities.
Let's just take a minute
and pinpoint one of those subjects.
Regarding specifically one's sexuality,
Mr. Kyle Rae, a Canadian politician,
stated that my generation
didn't come out until at least university.
Today, people are coming out
in high school if not grade school.
Can everyone just take a minute
and imagine what it will be like
to have to deny a mayor part
of who you are until at least university?
That's for 18, 19, 20 years of your life.
Of lying immensively to your friends,
to your family, and in many
cases to yourself,
just because the generation
you were born into
didn't give you the opportunity
to express who you are.
In no way is that healthy
or is it logical.
Because how can a society expect
to be honest and a government transparent,
if so many of its participants
are forced to lie to fit in?
If you are born
in an atmosphere of oppression
in which you feel like you
have to lie just to fit in,
as if lying is your method
of self-defense and communication;
that's going to continue on
throughout the rest of your life.
The sames creates a community of liars
where a lie becomes
more acceptable than the truth is.
But today's generation,
we have the opportunity
to actually be honest about who we are.
And to create a generation that reflects
our honesty instead of just demonstrating
a debilitating need for conformity
that benefits no one.
In the direct relation to the idea
of us being one of the first generations
able to be honest about who we are,
we also have the opportunity
to really explore
and shape ourselves into the people
who we want to be.
If you take a look at past generations
there was a lot more of kind
of specific mold you have to fit into.
Like you would finish school
and you would jump right
into a steady job as soon as possible
in order to start a family.
That was your accepted social norm.
But today, you see people
doing different things.
Whereas in the past the idea
of taking a year off to travel
or working random jobs,
or trying to open up your own business,
maybe just working out in your basement
doing whatever you want to do,
that would have been frowned upon
in the past or thought to be impractical.
But, when you take a look at youth today,
it is so much more common to see
a young person doing something
like taking a year to travel
to a far off country
where there is a foreign language
and an alien culture
just to experience
an entirely new way of life.
And the positive effects
that taking on an opportunity like this
can have on an individual,
are immense.
By taking a risk like this,
it allows someone to become
so much more independent
and so much more open.
By taking advantage of these opportunities
- and in many cases these risks
that we have available to us -
we have the opportunity
to change how we view ourselves,
how we present ourselves,
and we also get to broader
our global perspective.
We no longer just kind of accept
what you know a parent or a teacher
or another figure tells us at face value
because that's our only option.
We're actually able to go out
and experience what they are telling us,
to make our own ideas.
to decide what we want to believe,
and what we think is important to us.
Youth today have the opportunity to take
advantage of all these opportunities
that other generations didn't have,
to make personal and emotional connections
that we can then bring back
to our own communities
and allow to have
an exponential impact on other things.
Also, when you look at occupations,
in the past, things were
so much more limited.
It wasn't like if you were choosing
the future that really interested you.
You were doing what seemed like
you could make decent money out
or was, you know, this sustainable idea.
Whereas how it's today is
youth are trying to take the time
and figure out what they're
really passionate about.
And when you think about it
shouldn't that be everyone's goal?
To find out what it is
that you are truly passionate about
and puts a light in your eyes
when you tell others about it.
That kind of passion
is so vital to a society,
to an economy, to a community.
Because when you think about it,
if you're waking up in the morning
and you love what you do,
you're going to be really good at it.
Because you're going to enjoy
what you're doing,
and you're going to want
to keep on doing it.
And that's what youth today
are trying to pinpoint:
to find out what they like doing.
Whereas in the past,
in terms of occupations,
for others generations
their occupational future was this hallway
that was lined with doors.
But only one of the doors
was actually unlock to them.
So many other limitations,
like sex, or race, or language,
or following in a family footsteps,
or just trying to pick
that sustainable occupation.
Those limitations that other generations
were faced with are obsolete to us today.
We no longer had to settle
for that one open door,
all of them are open to us,
and if we want, we can take a peek in one
and see what that path looks like,
go down into little, and if we decided,
"That's not the path I want to live,"
you can keep on trying,
and trying, and trying
until you find the thing
that you are really passionate about.
And that's so important.
Like if you are doing what you love,
that has such a positive impact
on all parts of your generation
and your community.
Moving away from occupation,
this generation also has
a lot more opportunities
in regards to their familiar
life and decisions.
Whereas in the past, starting a family was
basically an assumed factor of your life.
It was assumed that you would
graduated school, you would grow up,
and you would start a family,
you would have your kids,
you would have your pet dog,
and you will have that lovely
little white picket fence to boot.
That was just yours accepted social norm.
That was what you were going to do.
But today, our generation
isn't just constrained to that.
If a couple decides,
"Hey, we don't want to had kids,"
or if an individual decides,
"I don't really want to get married,"
that's OK in today's society,
our world isn't measured
in if you have a baby,
or if you have a spouse any more.
And that's good because family decisions
are something extremely personal,
and someone shouldn't feel
coerced into by society,
or by someone else's unreal expectations.
We have the opportunity to decided
what will make us happy,
and if you do find happiness
in having a family, then you can do that,
but if you don't, then,
you no longer have to feel as afraid
that you are going to be ostracized
by your family or by outsiders
for making a choice
that will make you happy.
We are no longer just viewed
as one aspect alone,
like seen only as a mother,
or seen only as a father,
but we are instead viewed
as a multitude of our traits,
of our experiences,
and factors that actually matter,
and people appreciated that.
There is a quotation by sociologist
and philosopher Emile Durkheim
that states, "Each new generation
is reared by its predecessor,
the latter must therefore improve,
to improve its successor."
But to me, this quote
is only somewhat true.
We may have been influenced heavily
by the generation before us,
but we still have the opportunity
to interpret the teachings
that they've passed to us
and take a hold at every chance we have
to have a positive impact on things
that don't just implicate
our generation alone
but implicated the world as a whole.
We have the opportunity
to realize the positive potential
that youth have in the modern world
and the opportunity to have
a positive effect on things globally,
on things throughout all generations.
Today's generation has the opportunity
to become who we want to be.
And in doing so,
we also have the opportunity
to make society what we wanted to be.
Thank you so much for your time.
(Applause)
