Hey Young World

A letter to the younger generation

I am totally appalled and disgusted by your attitude towards life and your bodies. I wonder each day how and when did these innocent babies turn into these sex crazed, no respect for anyone especially themselves young adults. I sit back and watch you on the bus sit in seats designated for the elderly, disabled, or parents with young kids and not offer your seat to any of these designated groups yet when someone points that out to you, you have the nerve to insult and yell at them for even suggesting u stand when u are perfectly able to instead of apologizing and making sure u don't repeat yourself.

I see you in public with your significant others (mind u the word boyfriend was not allowed in my vocabulary until I was 18) and if I didn't know better I would seriously believe u were having sex if I didn't see u with your clothes on. So eager to send "sexts" and email pictures of yourself naked to each other and proudly post them online or suddenly through a fit when its posted online. (What did u expect to happen when you hit send you big dummy!) I see how you are so quick to offer your goods to sometimes to the lowest bidder just to fit in yet when your counter part refuses to do the same u laugh and tease them till they are forced to do the same. Shame on you!

You disrespect your parents, your elders. Parents are afraid to discpline because they fear for their safety or the consequences of the law. They fear that if they speak up and take action they may lose you so they keep their mouths shut. Gone are the days when children had a healthy fear of their parents. They always put into consideration what their parents would think before they acted. Gone are the day when the rod was not spared when discplining a child but these days all the parents have to do is raise their voice and the police are knocking on their door ready to cart them away.

As easy as it would be to blame you for your actions I can't do that entirely without blaming your parents. Parents are no longer taking responsibility on how they raise their children. Either they don't care enough or they are too afraid of not allowing their kids to "express themselves" blaming everything on the fact that their children are going through a "phrase" instead of nipping those actions in the bud the minute they display them and waiting till its too late to do something. Media can be blamed, with the over abundance of reality tv and tv shows that glorify teenage sexuality but come on let's be real, at the end of the day if something is not done at home no amount of tv can be blamed for the action of bad kids

Younger generation, learn to love yourself. Learn to be individuals. Stop basing who you are on who and what other people are. Dont be a follower, be a trendsetter. Who cares if you are not "cool" by your peers standards" Secretly they admire you for being an individual. Disrespecting your body doesnt make you popular and well liked, it makes you susceptible to disease, teenage pregnancy and quite frankly the title "slut" this does not exclude the young boys too.

Learn to say No when its necessary. Most importantly learn some mannners and some respect! Dont always fight those who mean well and are looking out for your best interest. Yes I do know that your parents may not always have the right answers or make the best decisions but it doesnt give you the righ to disrespect them and mistreat them. Wearing next to nothing clothes doesnt make you sexy...Dressing appropriately for your age and leaving some parts hidden makes you classy yet sexy.

The right person loves you no matter who you are. No need to dress a certain way, speak a certain way, or act a certain way to get noticed. You are noticed when you are yourself.

Love each other and stop making others feel less adequate. Stop judging people for who they are, gay, straight, short fat, tall, slim. They are who they are. Enpower each other and lift each other. Be supportive and lend a shoulder to someone in need.

I am not saying i am any better bu it doesnt mean you have the right to be worse. Time to be you!

Beautiful just the way you are

This evening on my way to the gym, i was on the bus and I saw this young girl, standing with her huge back pack listening to her ipod. She looked about 13 with a shy demeanor about her yet slightly unsure of herself. Very innocent and all I could do was say a small prayer for her that she grows up to love herself and not let society and friends influence her to be someone she is not. I know weird for me to do that for someone I know nothing about but the world we live in today, you really dont know what people are going through so the best thing to do is say a prayer for them and wish them well...

I know my thoughts were far fetched and a bit extreme considering I knew nothing about this young girl but someone was telling me today how she was in the hospital with her teenage son and she saw a lot of anorexic teenagers who were near death because for some reason or the other they didnt believe that they were slim enough to be noticed. I am no expert on anorexia so it will be ignorant of me to say that they became anorexic because of societal pressures to be slim but for a teenage girl to be that sick obviously it may be fair to assume that is what it is.

Now most of you who have read my blogs and know who I am, may know that my own self image at times has not always been where it needs to be. I have tried excessive diets to lose the weight just to lose a few pounds and put it all on again because for some reason I believed that when the weight came off, it would stay off so you can imagine my disappointment when it kept coming back. Of course I was no near anorexic but what makes what I was doing any different than these bullemic or anorexic girls who are doing the same.

I will say this though, we are gradually becoming a society where we are beginning to accept people for who they are, big or small, tall or shot, fat or skinny but we still have a long way to go. We have to fight obesity, we have to fight anorexic and we have to fight the biggest problem, lack of self confidence which pretty much is the key to all the image problems that are faced by our young people today.

Once we learn to teach our young people especially our young women that beauty is not what you wear, how much make up you have on, how slim or fat you are but really what is in side of you then hopefully young people today wont be so concerned about their body image.

I no way shape or form am I promoting people to gain weight but I feel we need to really get out of this whole mentality that looking a certain way will make you more beautiful, or more desired or more popular. Parents need to teach their kids that taunting others and bullying others only makes you look like a coward and insecure because bullies are insecure people who dont feel they are good enough so they prey on people who they believe are beneath them when really these people are strong beautiful individduals who have done nothing wrong but accept that they are who they are but people obviously think they are not good enough.

While that young girl I saw today is just another young girl I hope that she grows up to be a beautiful self assured individual who learns to believe that her beauty has nothing to do with how she looks outwardly but what inside is what really counts. Lets try to stop bullying and anorexia. Lets get our magazines and tv shows to start showing that beautiful people do not come in a standard size but they all come in different shapes and sizes. Even models and TV stars dont look the way they portray them to be.