An Uncertain Finish Line (October 3, 2001)

This weekend, when my grandparents arrived from the Midwest, I embraced them with newfound connection. A Sunday morning nearly sixty years ago, my grandfather was engrossed in the funny pages when he heard the startling news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He was twenty years old. At seventeen, it is profoundly disturbing to be able to identify with the fear and uncertainty he felt on December 7, 1941 and in the following years. I rarely imagined that I would ever feel the same apprehension about the future as my grandparents, and other members of the "Greatest Generation" did. The gap between teenagers and their grandparents certainly has narrowed. 

Fear is the thread that ties, but in so many respects, teenagers and young adults are coming of age in a world so unlike the one their grandparents knew. It is an uncharted world of terror, a world of new concern. So, where do the events of September 11^th leave us? How have our attitudes changed? How will the "Information Generation" march into an uncertain future?

Before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there was no better word to describe the broad situation of those born after 1980 but fortunate. Too young to remember well a war or recession, our generation is marked by technology. We want information fast. We are frustrated if a web page doesn’t load in a matter of seconds. Before the September 11^th crashes, the media played to us with images of boy bands and sitcoms that centered on conversations in a Greenwich Village coffeehouse. I’ve only watched "Friends" once since the attacks. I had to turn it off because the New York City skyline between scenes was just another reminder of tragedy. Besides, the show’s plot line, and the intrusive advertising that accompanied it, seemed remarkably trivial. The idea that I tried to watch the show as many nights this summer as possible seemed even more so.

The past few weeks, I have instead wanted to marvel at what makes life simple and beautiful: a friend’s smile, the way the wind blows through the trees. I have also felt the urge to contribute to relief. I sense a unified feeling of action among my classmates. Students are banding together to raise money for the Red Cross through bake sales and car washes. The Pledge of Allegiance is said more enthusiastically on rainy Monday mornings. It’s apparent that students are generally more supportive of one another. 

It is exciting to see that students are banding together. However, like many others, I feel it is extremely unfortunate that it took a national disaster to unite students. No matter what the future brings, let us hope that teenagers remain united and supportive. Speaking at George Mason’s Model United Nations Conference, the acting Secretary General, senior Christina Christianson, stated that terrorism was just one of the many races we must run in the future. Although she was referring to international relations, this idea applies in all aspects of life. Whatever personal or collective races that our generation runs in the coming months and years, let’s remember to support each other to the uncertain finish line.