Life is forever fluid, always changing yet ever present. As we grow older, learning more, living more; we become more in touch with ourselves, understanding the truth of this world, but not if we choose a path of ignorance.
Whichever path we choose, our future generations will have to make the same choices in their lives. When our youth is born into this world, they are born with pure consciousness and awareness. Experiencing all for the first time, without any judgement, no opinion, just experiencing. In many ways, this is what we as humans strive to attain once more. However, as we ‘learn more’, and try and label all that we see, we lose that dynamic. We gain subjective opinions and lose the purity we were all born with.
This brings me to suggesting why empowering the youth is so important. Our children are so precious, and we wish to protect them from all the dangerous elements that exist in our world. Overprotecting them however, may actually change their very purity for the worse. Yes, there are many things a child should not experience and those things as elders our role is to protect them from. But when it comes to subjects where we have strong opinions on, where we know not the full truth, where we wish to push our beliefs on others unconsciously – take a moment to consider, what does my child think?
The future is undoubtedly the youth of the now, We, as older generations are a dying breed of humanity. With laws in our systems designed for our generation and generations before us, they have little relevance for our youth, and often will hinder them in the future when we are dead and gone. This is why it is so important to ask the youth what they think. What they feel are the solutions to problems we face today. As farfetched as their answers may seem, they are often on the right track – because problems in our world have become so out of hand that it takes something so farfetched to solve them.
The youth of the now are the building blocks of the future. Using old bricks will only keep the foundation unstable. The youth is our sincere truth, and it is up to us to use their purity for the wellness of the world and build future systems for them worth living in.
What can we do to empower the Youth?
- Respect their beliefs.
- Ask them how they feel we can solve problems – whether they be day to day issues, or global crises.
- Encourage them to speak their minds.
- Let them be creative, allow them to express themselves freely.
And most importantly –
- Protect them. But always be aware of what you advise them on or speak in front of them about. For as pure as their being is, it is also incredibly malleable, and their experiences in early life, mold their future.
Chavez Selvaratnam