It is sad when I look at my generation and realize that I am stuck with them forever. I am stuck with the general stereotype of today’s youth. All of “yaw” referring to my peers and I, do not know what it used to be like in the “good old days”. This is true. But what I do know is that I am not the typical teenager. I am a minority within a minority. I am an African American female who is in college.

So what is the problem with my generation? Why do we do the things we do? Why do we watch music videos and reality t.v. and try to emulate everything we see?

Personally, I feel my generation feels sorry for themselves. And then they try and make everyone else feel sorry for them as well.

One thing I always here my generation say is that “I am a product of my environment”. Well aren’t we all? Aren’t we all emotionally scarred from things that have happened to us in our past? The difference between me and the rest of my generation is that I turned all of my negatives into positives.

Just like a typical kid of my generation my father was absent during more than half of my life. But instead of using that as an excuse to stay in the streets, I used that as an excuse to better myself. And to be sure to not get involved with a man who will leave me and my children (and don’t try and act like you didn’t know he would leave, if he’s not consistent with you, he will not be consistent with his children).

Just like a typical kid of my generation I was born out of wed lock. But instead of using that as an excuse to have a bunch of kids I cannot take care of and blame it on my “daddy issues”, I used that as an excuse to keep a good head on my shoulders. And not let sweet nothings get the best of me.

Just like a typical kid of my generation, my mother and father did not attend college. But instead of using that as an excuse to settle for a minimum wage job, I use it as an excuse to go to college and make something of myself.  And to be sure that I set the example for my children.

I told myself a long time ago that I would break the mold; not only for my family, but for my entire generation. I have promised myself to be the voice of the typical kid of my generation. I want to broadcast to the world that “yaw” is not who WE are. There may only be a hand full of kids like me, but I pray that we could show the ones who will come after us that they do not have to be a statistic. And that although they may be a product of their environment, they can still change the world.