Yesterday I was reading a thread on Instagram about how people say that Generation Z (my generation) is too Young to do certain things. And it made me realize I have something to say too.
People tell us that we are too young and to let adults handle the problems that our society is facing. The sad fact is that, the problems are not being resolved and if they are not resolved in the next 10 years the generation of the current world leaders won’t be affected by it; we will. That’s why people should start speaking up.
We are not too young to:
-to voice our concerns
⁃ to stand up for each other
⁃ to be activists
⁃ to protest
⁃ to be aware
Whenever I’m at School the probability that me or one of my fellow classmates might be hurt in the school we think is safe. I’m extremely lucky to not to worry about school shootings but thinking about them is extremely common for many US public school students.
Whenever I walk down the streets of Istanbul I hear a man say disrespectful things about my body that I wouldn’t have the courage to confront him about. I want to be able to explore the city I live in, every corner every street, but the fear that I might get sexually assaulted doesn’t let me. It’s not just me; catcalling and fear of getting raped are humongous problems amongst teenage girls. I have many female friends who don’t feel safe walking around alone.
I was in the Hong Kong Airport on 12th of August. I had a flight which got cancelled due to the protests. While me and my mom were trying to figure out what to do, I overheard an elderly couple talking about how the protestors were too young to protest. Because the protestors were probably 3-4 years older than me and that I have thought about joining some protests about climate change. I was personally offended that these protestors were not being heard because they were too young.
Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old climate change activist, has been not attending her school every Friday for a year now to protest the climate change and created Fridays For the Future. Yesterday she arrived to New York, after a 15 day long sailing journey from Plymouth to New York,to attend an UN Climate Change conference. She sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reduce her carbon emission. The entire journey was covered my news broadcasting networks and she made her voice heard.
Maybe we are too young but at least we are aware. I want to live in a world where I don’t have to fight to make people hear my voice. I want to live in a world where people are aware. I want to live in a world where people take actions. But all these start with people being aware.
SPEAK UP!
