January 21, 2014
We are a lost generation
chasing a GPA
chasing a resume
chasing six figure
nine-to-five’s
drinking away reality
popping adderall
to block out the world
to write papers
on subjects we’re sick of
in major’s we were told
would land us six figure jobs
as long as we maintain that GPA
and volunteer to pad our resume
not to help humanity…
we have become self absorbed
thinking that the world needs us
thinking those six figure nine-to-five’s
will make us important
will make us happy
will allow us to buy
things…
things that we don’t need
but that we think we should have
things that we think people will envy…
jobs we think that people will respect
we have been trained to trade our hearts
and our souls
and our consciences
for our ego
and for bank accounts
inflated with wheelbarrows full of monopoly money
and we are pro-choice
and we are pro-life
and we are democrats
and we are republicans
and we watch the news
and we vote
and…
we think it matters
and we walk right by
the woman on main street
holding an empty coffee cup
begging change enough to get drunk
or high
but we see these same people
we walked by
as we help serve community meals
come Sunday
because corporations will like to see that
on our resume
and we can get better jobs
with fancy titles
and go to ivy league grad schools
where we will again take adderall
to write papers
on subjects we’re sick of
all so we can get new jobs
with even more important sounding titles
with coworkers who will join us
for dinner at over-priced restaurants
where underpaid undocumented immigrants
spend ten hour days cracking coconuts
peeling carrots
and carving out some semblance of an American dream
of an unwanted existence
in a country that sees them
as little more than a racist stereotype
and we will have our sports cars valet parked
by people of color who we just know we worked harder than
because we deserve all that we have,
our brownstone
our beach house
our Lexus
our boat
our six weeks paid vacation
and more than enough paid sick time
and our self-important six-figure jobs
without which the world would certainly cease to turn
and we frame our diplomas
and get upset
at homophobic duck hunters
and crooked New Jersey Politicians
and twerking teenage pop stars
and we spend eighty dollars on lift tickets
even though we don’t even like skiing
and we buy ten thousand dollar engagement blood diamonds
and we spend more on our weddings
than most people make in a year
doing jobs that disgust us
jobs our grandfathers
and their fathers
lived lives much happier than ours with
in homes built with their own two hands…
we have grown to view calluses as primitive
to view janitors
and plumbers
and construction workers
as beneath us
grown to see immigrant farm hands
and black and brown teenagers
and terrorists,
sorry i mean Arabs,
no, i mean wait, what’s the difference?
to view them all as less human than we are…
we deserve
no, no, no…we EARNED
everything we have
and the world is only unfair when our job gets outsourced
when we get laid off
or we never get the job we think we deserve to begin with
and we have to live in our parent’s basements
and sling six dollar lattes at starbucks
so we can barely pay the interest on student loans
that will keep us in debt until we die
and we dream of those six-figure nine-to-fives
that will get us that car
that house
that ring
that wedding
and that all important title
because we think that matters
because we always will think that matters
we will always think that I matter
always think there is no such thing as we…
think the individual is what’s important
not community
fuck humanity
fuck you
fuck “we”
I could feed the village with my gold
but I’d rather starve and look important
than open my arms
and break bread with my brothers and sisters
my “A” is worth less if I tutor you to the same grade
fuck humanity
fuck you
fuck “we”
it’s about ME…
why should I ache
when bombs blow apart the lives
of those i was taught to view as ‘other’
half a world away?
you should feel sorry for me…
I’m the one living in my parent’s basement
working at starbucks
drowning in student loan debt
does my 4.0 mean nothing to you?
does my resume with all that volunteer work
mean nothing to you?
do I mean nothing to you?
soitgoes1984 