“People your age are going to be the ones to make the most difference right now.”

I’ve had that phrase pop up in conversations I’ve had in recent weeks with everyone from family members, to interview subjects to people in the grocery store.

It’s a strange thing to hear at such a young age. In my early 20’s, I don’t how to handle hearing that phrase sometimes. I still don’t know how to handle being called Sir in public.

I still get a sad satisfaction out of being called Sir, as I’m at that weird phase where I really don’t feel like a kid anymore, but I don’t fully feel like an adult at the same time.

But as I’ve let that phrase bounce around in my head for he past few weeks, I’ve begun to think that it makes a great deal of sense.

I think it’s lost on my generation sometimes that we have the chance to do whatever we want to right now. We spend a handful of years trying to skate through college, wondering where those five years went as we walk across the stage on graduation day.

Rather than being fully schooled in our majors though, we have a generation of my fellow recent college grads who know more about the cast of Jersey Shore than about foreign relations. Not all of us, but some.

But hearing people tell me that my generation is going to make a difference is frightening to hear sometimes. We appreciate the kind thoughts, but we are the same people who grew up watching Beavis and Butt-head. You have great faith people.

All kidding aside, it does carry some weight when someone says something like that to you. It makes me think about just what I’m going to do to make my mark someday. Am I going to write the next piece of literary genius? Will I break the story of the decade?

That’s where you can get in trouble though. It’s important to remember at my age that the ride has just begun.

It was my favorite author Hunter S. Thompson that coined the phrase, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

I’ve tried to take that approach to life. I’ve punched my ticket for life, now I just need to go on the ride.

I may ride it out to great success. I may ride it out to a career of mediocrity. However it ends up, I’ll remember I have the support of the older generations. Here’s to you, believers. May your beliefs be right, or just in the ballpark at least.

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