I take a deep breath, my body tingling as it struggles with the intense alteration in temperature. Breathing on my hands to warm them, I can smell the building's age. The heavy door slams behind me, shutting out the brutal, cold winter air, and I turn to my dad beside me. We fast transfer awkward "what should we do now" grins. We're in a church, both eager to attend our first ever writers meeting. A short staircase leads down to the unknown and seems the only direction available. Clumsily, we descend and find ourselves standing in a small corridor with any distinct doors to choose from, two of which are bathrooms.
Suddenly, an older woman nearing sixty appears behind us. "Are you here for the meeting?" she asks, and it is in that moment that I perceive how lost and ridiculous my father and I must look. It is only seconds that I dwell on this before other revelation strikes me. She has only made eye perceive with my dad. I am somehow ignored.
California Sky Diving
"Yes. It's our first time," my dad replies.
"I am still pretty new too. Last time we had it in here." The woman points and begins to walk in the direction that she is indicating. Voices resonate, echoing against the walls. Somewhere citizen are talking. The woman leads us to a room nearby the corner where I can already see groups gathered, conversing.
As I enter into the miniature throng, I fast scan the room, taking note of the severe time warp I have just intersected. There is an easy twenty years between myself and the members of the writers group, which I will not name for confidentiality reasons. They are, however, very friendly and welcoming and immediately greet us, let me rephrase, my dad to the assembly. My existence hardly acknowledged, I feel myself fading into the background, my body becoming part of the dull, plastered, white walls that enclose the tiny room.
We transfer names with the few that come to welcome us and then they begin a conversation with my dad, request him what things he likes to write and such. While I am being roughly unseen, I decide to casually eye my surroundings. It is, as I said before, a small room with round tables, adorned with vividly colorful table cloths, positioned nearby a podium. In one corner sits other table, this one rectangle, covered with any distinct refreshments to choose from. When I turn my attention back to the conversation before me, I fast perceive I am waiting for something. I am waiting for someone to ask me, "Hey, what do you write?" or "What made you want to visit our group?" If they only took a second to ask, they would learn that I am well the author of a fiction novel that will debut this year, that I am a twenty-year-old college learner trying to make a name for herself. They would then identify that I am one of the most flourishing citizen standing in that room. Instead, I just get looks that ask, "Why is she here? Is she even old sufficient to drive?"
I suddenly feel invisible, just the kid that her dad brought along because he couldn't find anywhere else for her to go. I want to scream and shout and make a scene just like a miniature kid because that is how they see me. I want to run up to the nearest old someone and shake some sense into them. I will admit that I look young for my age, but why does my youth have to become my curse? This well is not the first time I have been overlooked in a group of older people. It's anywhere I go. My publishers were surprised to find that I was so young. citizen ask me roughly every day at my job if I am even old sufficient to have a job. I have to ask myself if that is even a legitimate request would I be working if I was not old enough? What age will I begin to receive the prestige that I deserve? It is obviously not twenty. Twenty-one? Twenty-five? Thirty? When will the adult world finally see me for the adult I am? I had this strange idea that, because it is the legal age in the United States, at eighteen I would at last join the "grown-up" world and finally have an conception that mattered, but I guess that was just other childish whim.
Why are citizen so surprised that at twenty, I have written and published a book? Is twenty too young to believe? Hundreds of young citizen throughout history have done greater things than simply writing a book. David was seventeen when he killed Goliath. Alexander the Great was sixteen when he found his first colony. At nineteen, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake after important the French army into any victories while the Hundred Years War. By the time he was eight, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had already published four sonatas and was inspiring audiences in major cities and courts. Fifteen year old Louis Braille created the Braille writing law for the blind in 1824. In 1965, S.E. Hinton wrote the noted book The Outsiders at fifteen. Natasha Hull-Richter helped found the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party in 2005 when she was only thirteen, and in 2010, Jessica Watson became the youngest someone to sail solo nearby the world at just sixteen. There are millions more young citizen that have done splendid things that are never recognized, that are never given the prestige that they have so painstakingly earned. Why does community keep them a secret? Why does the world continue to request the authority, skill, and brain of its youth?
Just days ago, I was able to attend other writers meeting entirely isolate from the first, this time on my own. It was being held at Kennesaw State University where I am a student, but it was not exactly connected with the school. At the entry a small conference of citizen had congregated appearing to have intentions of signing in and being welcomed to the meeting. I stood among them, waiting to turn in my registration form and then gain reduction to enter and have a seat. I waited and waited and waited until I was the last one standing from the cluster. It was immediately apparent that I was already, from the first second I walked in, being judged agreeing to my age. When I finally received the chance to sign in and hand over my registration paper, the woman behind the desk stared up at me with a bewildered expression.
"Do I need to sign in? I printed this off the website," I said to her, giving her the paper.
She took it, looked at it while I signed in, then answered, "Yeah, thanks for printing that out."
I nodded and headed inside the room where the meeting was to be held, thinking I was done at the desk, but she suddenly called me back, "You look very young. Are you a learner here?"
It was just a easy question; however, it was not the request that threw me. "You look very young," a statement that said much, much more than that. The woman was not well just telling me that I looked young, she was well asking, "Are you sure you belong here?" and therefore, insulting my brain and my importance as a human being. She might as well have asked me where my mommy was. Appalled and vexed by the lack of respect, I had to then prove that I, in fact, belonged in the meeting, the adult world and that I was "old enough" to perhaps have worth in society. If we continue to be so subdued, stalled from maturity, can today's youth take the lead in the future? Could America's survival be at stake once it's in our hands?
As time passed, and I began to reflect in greater information what could perhaps be the root for such an underestimation, I could not help but wonder if it had all the time been so or if today's community had twisted and warped the image of its youth into something disrespected and misrepresented. We have all heard the old Victorian idiom, "children should be seen and not heard," which has been drilled into our society's ideology long before the turn of the twentieth century. Now as an juvenile myself, it has become very apparent to me that no one has even begun to decide when a child is no longer a child, and therefore, we must decide each for ourselves when to begin to not only see but also hear our younger counterparts. A change in the times both economically and philosophically could be cause sufficient for youth's continuous discredit. Is it potential that today's young citizen are being kept dependent far too long? Flash back to 1950, it was determined general to break off from one's parents to create an independent household relatively fast after graduating high school "because opportunities were plentiful and public expectations of the time reinforced the need to do so" (Settersten and Ray 6). Now flash transmit to 2000, agreeing to the U.S. Census, there were roughly 2.6 million households which consisted both of parents and their young adult children (Di, Yang, and Liu, 4). But, can adulthood well be defined by where and with whom one lives? True, inspiring out gives a someone adult accountability and has remained a original tradition for the majority of young citizen who have recently graduated high school, but the failing cheaper of today's America has its youth struggling to make ends meet while trying to become independent. So, we can probably assume that our youth's financial dependency on their parents has led the older generation to request their transition from child to adult. However, there are millions of other young adults who administrate to hastily assault out on their own, and yet they are just as underrated.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the word "adult" is defined as, "fully industrialized and mature, grown-up," which should then impose the query of the literal, meaning of "mature", which Merriam-Webster has defined as, "having completed natural growth and development, ripe" ("adult" and "mature"). I can only desist from such English definitions that once a someone reaches perfect physical development, in terms of overcoming puberty, and "ripens" into a mentally garage human being, then he or she is classified as an adult, and should no longer experience the humiliation of exclusion from the adult realm in which a child must suffer. Seen and not heard should not apply to "fully industrialized and mature" persons, but in proceeding further into life as a grown-up, I see on a quarterly basis that this truth is neither honored nor acknowledged. Nowhere in these definitions does it state that one must be entirely independent in order to be an lawful adult. They make no claims that a young someone must make any splendid achievement or even conduce anyone of value into society. In fact, there are no requirements for adulthood except merely reaching a state of "full improvement and maturity." So why do we remain invisible?
It is often stated, and without doubt observed even, that young citizen have an inclination to party, consume alcohol, and on some occasions, draw the attention of law enforcement, or in other words, get into mischief they ought not to. This behavioral misconduct could also factor into the cause of miscalculations of their authority and responsibility. Dr. Dina Krauskopf, a Regional Researcher on Adolescence and Youth and International advisor on Young citizen Policies, asserts that acting out is one way youth tend to get noticed. This helps elaborate why they are often viewed as problematic and irresponsible. "And when young citizen work and do a good job, they're not seen as young citizen but as flourishing businesspersons" (Krauskopf). Apart from being too dependent, we are also perceived as troublemakers. I agree with Dr. Krauskopf, but I must pose the question: is it fair to group all of us in one stereotype even when few of us seem to fit the bill? A horrific inference community has crafted of its youth, which cannot be any less equal to the ongoing problems of racism and discrimination. Like any stereotype, the one that alleges that all youth are "problematic" is exceedingly degrading. While some of us will join a gang or graffiti a wall or even just simply commit the crime of public intoxication to combat our incessant invisibility, there are many, many more of us that will achieve quite the contrary, proving our "fully industrialized and mature" capabilities.
This discussion cannot be left one-sided, however. Many Americans in the generations before us believe that today's youth think themselves "entitled". What does that mean? It means that employers and businesses believe we are over-demanding and arrogant once we reach the workforce, that our expectations are entirely way too high, and that we want all things right away. Ron Alsop, a writer for the Wall street Journal, states that, "Millennials [people born between 1980 and 2001] feel an unusually strong sense of entitlement with older adults criticizing the high-maintenance rookies for demanding too much too soon" (D1). Alsop backs his statement up by blaming youth's "entitlement" on nurturing parents, teachers, and coaches who praised us even when we failed in order to spare our self-esteem. While I agree that the majority of today's young citizen were overly doted upon and often told they were "special", I do not affirm our supposed entitlement. It is not entitlement we are suffering; it is babying. Young citizen have been robbed, deprived even, of perceive and of growth. When a child touches a hot stove for the very first time, it burns so much that the child will all the time remember never to touch the hot stove again. We learn only from gaining knowledge through experience, and as long as the older generations walk to deny the very essence of learning from their youth, young citizen will remain discredited and undervalued.
From the Tale of the Body Thief, author Anne Rice could not have put the unending battle into great terms, saying, "The young know how truly difficult and dreadful youth can be. Their youth is wasted on everyone else, that's the horror. The young have no authority, no respect" (134). This brings me to the next issue of inexperience. Young citizen are all the time being taken advantage of. Doctors, dentists, and prestige card lines prey on juvenile ignorance, attempting to citation monetary gains from their inexperience. I have been in numerous situations where a physician tried to cajole me into accepting medicine or medication I did not need but would have to pay severely for. Recently, I went for my annual eye exam. I went alone to a new doctor, because I had moved too far from my old doctor. This singular optometrist sized up my youth in a matter of seconds. He told me I needed bifocals, which I later learned were more high-priced and later declined. He also decided to switch my perceive brand to a more high-priced brand without informing me of the new cost. He then offered to test for glaucoma and any other eye diseases. It had been a long time since I was last tested, so I reluctantly agreed. However, he deliberately failed to mention that the tests were fifty dollars more than I well needed. I tested negative for all the diseases, and as I walked out of the office after paying my immoderate bill, I realized that I had been taken advantage of. I then had to blindly drive home in the dark with dilated pupils cursing myself the whole way. Embarrassed to even admit such an incident, I can imagine what other citizen my age are also enduring because of their naïveté.
Irish writer and poet, Oscar Wilde said, "In America, the young are all the time ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience," (Stillman 1). Wilde is right, not only are we invisible, but we are also cruelly used. The only way we, as young people, can defend ourselves against such schemes is to educate ourselves, to request all authority both old and young and make responsible choices to the best of our abilities.
Experience can only be gained when it is offered. American community has set apart its youth by setting limitation after limitation, which keeps them dependent, immature, and irresponsible. The U.S. Recognizes legal adulthood to be at 18 years of age, and once reached, a citizen is then permitted to join the military, go sky-diving, buy cigarettes or lottery tickets, or get married, among other things. However, now that the 18 year old is a legal adult, he or she cannot buy or consume alcohol, rent a car, get a hotel room, go or work on a cruise ship alone, become a police officer or Emt, or volunteer for the United Nations. Is there a paradox in these limitations? Why is America keeping its young citizen back?
The answer: because older Americans are distrustful and perhaps even afraid of every new generation that threatens to change the world as they know it. Or perhaps it is because parents are just too afraid their "pride and joy" will get a paper cut, curl up, and then die in pain. They lack the capability to quote with their younger citizens on an adult level and appear to be oblivious to the fact that these limitations are stifling their youth more and more, hindering their abilities, their brain and therefore, making it so easy to discredit them. How can we be told to go fight for our country, our free time in a foreign land overseas, only to return and be refused permission to rent a car and a hotel room so that we may celebrate a vacation in our own country? Tell that to Alexander the Great; tell that to Joan of Arc.
Can America be alone in this great war between youth and its predecessors? further research of societies and young citizen nearby the world may prove that to be true. It would well elaborate why the U.S. Tends to fall short in study and leadership. I have miniature knowledge of other countries' juvenile limitations, but I do know that youth in Europe are given more privileges than young Americans and are far more trusted by the older adults, while youth in Japan experience specific study and are anticipated of high performances. In spite of this, broadened research could perhaps elaborate similar issues with juvenile invisibility nearby the globe. If America's young adults remain unseen, then who will become the next superpower of the world in our stead?
While scouring the internet for varied articles pertaining to youth, the most tasteless issue was either or not America's young citizen can take the reins of the country when/if that becomes a necessity. The majority involved in the discussion agree that we could not, other insult to add to the unending list of discredits. If that be the case, then we must ask ourselves, why? Third Century eminent Greek philosopher, Diogenes Laertius once said, "The foundation of every state is the study of its youth" (Banks 255). We are what we are taught to be. America's ludicrous limitations are keeping us back, keeping us children when we are well adults and allowing our elders to perceive us as so, to underestimate us. noted author J.K. Rowling, who seems one of the few to remember exactly what youth was like, declares, "Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth" (386). I am inspiring to know at what age a someone transforms from an underestimated youth to an underestimating adult. Will we, today's youth, become these underestimators or will our perception of the generations that supervene us be entirely different? Only time will tell.
Does the blame fall on one singular cause? No, the fault cannot be settled solely on parents and their incessant coddling or on America's age restriction laws, or even young people's tendency to live at home longer. All of these factors contribute, but one cause is acutely more severe than the rest. I have often heard the phrase, "youth is wasted on the young," but like Rice said, the true waste of youth is caused only by their deprivation of authority and respect. While the old attempt to restrain our improvement into ripened adults, the real crime lies with youth itself, for the young stand back and do nothing. For too long have we been deterred from greatness that we allow ourselves to fall victim to the worst, most degrading discredit of all: invisibility. The fight for respect will continue, with the older, and presumably wiser, all the time having the upper hand in battle, and while older adults continue to request proof of worth from young people, the desire for respect and prestige in community will continue to dwindle as long as youth remain invisible. As one of these translucent beings myself, I know that I must fight for my own position in the world, claiming prestige where prestige is due and earning perceive and authority wherever I can find it. I encourage other phantoms like me to do the same. Looking to the future, I am aware that this war will never officially end, and as I grow older, I will look back to the days in which I was indiscernible and remind myself to see the generations after me.
Works Cited
"adult." Def. 1. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2011. Merriam-Webster Online. 15 Mar. 2011
Alsop, Ron. The " 'Trophy Kids' Go to Work." Wall street Journal. 21 Oct. 2008. D1. 15 Apr. 2011.
Banks, Emma. Teen Reflections on Education. Xlibris Corporation, 2010. Print.
Di, Zhu Xiao, Yi Yang, and Xiaodong Liu. "Young American Adults Living in Parental Homes." Joint center for Housing Studies. May 2002. Harvard University. 13 Mar. 2011
Krauskopf, Dina. Interview with Daniela Estrada. "Young citizen Are indiscernible Until They become a Problem". Ips, 2008. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
"mature." Def. 2a. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2011. Merriam-Webster Online. 15 Mar. 2011
Rice, Anne. The Tale of the Body Thief. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1985. Print.
Rowling, J.K.. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005. Print.
Settersten Jr., Richard A., and Barbara Ray. "What's Going on with Young citizen Today? The Long and Twisting Path to Adulthood." time to come of Children 20.1 (2010): 19-41. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
Stillman, Nick. "Youth Initiative." Artforum. 1 Jan. 2009: research Library, ProQuest. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
Underage Invisibility
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