Paige Erickson

Generation Z is “Too young”

You say I’m too young

Too young to be a feminist

Too young to know my own sexuality

Too young to be depressed

Too young to hate

Too young to protest

Too young to be an activist

Too young

Too stupid

Too naïve

And you’re right

I am too young

Too young to be scared of bullets ricocheting through my school, embedding themselves into my fellow students and having to watch as the life from my best friends bright, warm eyes flicker out into a cold blackness. A deep feeling hits me knowing that I will never to hear her laugh and see her smile that could light up the room, knowing that I can’t apologize for the stupid fight we had. I can’t tell here I love her one last time.

Too young to be scared of what will happen to me as I walk home alone in shorts and a t-shirt. I can feel his eyes staring me down as I walk past. I should have waited for my friend so I wouldn’t be alone, but no, now whatever happens to me is my fault.

Too young to be scared of finding my close friend dead in a dark, sticky pool of her crimson blood because that was better than living or finding her body cold and in a daze as she crams candy colored pills down her throat to make the pain go away. Too young to understand that she was bullied to where living wasn’t an option. And that I was too late to stop her.

Too young to be scared to see the familiar face of my 13 year old friend who was black and looked older than he did, and then soon to find out that he was shot dead by the white middle aged cop who shot him out of “self-defense” but my friend was unarmed or when my friend was killed for being Muslim and having a “suspicious” bag and having the police say they “thought” he was a terrorist when all he wanted to do was go home and give his sick mother her birthday gift, but all she got was a notice that her son wouldn’t come home.

Too young to be scared for my LGBT friends who just wanted love an acceptance but were killed, rejected, unloved and sent to conversion camps because they are just “disgusting sinners” or “just confused”. “Oh it is just a phase” they say. Oh hey my friend is back from the conversion camp, but she doesn’t know my name anymore.

Too young to mourn over people so dear to me that were killed and died because no one heard their cries, or no one bothered to hear anyway. No one would help because their cries were “fake” and their too young to know real pain.

Too young to be bruised, bloody and beaten by a war I didn’t even start or choose to partake in.

You say I’m too young

And you’re not wrong

I am too young

But you cannot blame me

For my hyper awareness to our reality

My generation was born with access to information by the click of a button.

And we have been told to sit and be silent

Because the adults are talking

But you had your chance

It is now our turn to speak

And it’s our turn to fight

Because our rage is fire

And with every ragged breath we take

Our lungs burn with all the hate and pain and misery

That is engraved in our picture of today’s society

You say we are too sensitive

Because we are just “emotional teens that can’t handle our own feelings”

Therefore, not being valid to have an opinion

But you can no longer invalidate our claims because we shout for change

Because the death of our classmates

And the blood of our friends

Paved a path for our revolution

Your generation may have won the battles

But my generation will win this war

My generation will bring peace

Because we grew up in a world where hate and discrimination is a must

And it’s time for change