What Do You Care About?

I was reading one of my friends' journal here, Xan'sGotStyle, and I got to thinking...

Teenagers--13-18--barely care about anything other than 'their image' or 'their social status' at school. Honestly, I think it's pathetic. Sure, I may worry about my image sometimes but I don't let it control me and everything I do.

We don't care about the important things; having a future, setting goals, having hopes. Living in the moment is a good thing, but we also have to think of the future every once in a while. Life is what you make of it, not the other way around. We have the control to change, we have the power to make our lives different.

But do we?

No.

& you wanna know why? It's because we're selfish and demeaning and just...mean. We don't care about others, we don't care about the consequences of what we do, and we sure as hell don't care about stepping--no, stomping--on a few peoples' toes.

We make the wrong decisions at this age and we don't realize the impact it has on our life. We do things without thinking and when it comes back to bite us in the ass, we freak out and wonder "Why?" when the answer is right in our face.

Now, I may seem harsh, or cold, or something, but I'm not. I just know what's its like. I know what it's like to want to change, to ditch my city and make something of myself, even though I'm pretty young. I want to see the world, just for the hell of it. I want to live and to explore, but at the same time, I want a family and I want a career.

Gah. I'm getting ahead of myself.

My point of all this is; why don't we think of others for a change? Why don't we do nice things to other people without having second intentions? Why can't we just live in a world where people don't have to worry about going to a party and having a date-rape drug slipped into their drink?

It's amazing how much this world has changed in the course of thirty years. My family tells me all the time;

Back in my day, we didn't have to worry about getting raped or killed out on the streets. We didn't have to attach ourselves to some boy or girl. When I was your age, I had crushes, but it was only a fact of wanting to be close to that person--just to see them or be around them. No kissing or hugging or anything like that. It was innocent.

It's true, what my family said. There's nothing innocent about this world anymore, and that disappoints me. We have the power to change, but we don't change in a positive way; we just get worse and worse.

It's like we won't ever learn from our mistakes. Learn from them and move on; growing to be a better person--a better whole.

"Take me back to the age of innocence!" <-- Cute is What We Aim For had a point there. All I want to do is go back to the age my parents grew up in, where things were innocent, care-free, and truly fun.

Sorry if I bored you. Comment? Tell me what you think...