During the 2000s, when I was growing in junior high and high school I looked at the kids around me and saw a startling inauthenticity.

The things people said and the way people acted seemed a silly imitation of what they saw on television, or read in a magazine. The core of people seemed to be based on one-dimensional popular culture. They were defining themselves with throwaway trends.

By basing themselves on these nothing things, they became people that stood for nothing, people whose goal in life was not to do or say anything significant, but a people whose number one goal is to be the coolest person in the room at that moment.

This characteristic of flash over substance, that defined those people I saw growing up, is what defines our generation. It was something I waited for six years for my generation to grow out of but never did.

We have grown into people that do not applaud the original thinkers, the artists who have something real to say and won’t back down until it’s heard. For the musicians and filmmakers of our generation, going against the grain, rebelling against the status quo is unthinkable. Rebel is not in our dictionary; we don’t   understand what the concept is.  Our rebels are nothing more then puppets for media companies to make money. Without truly original thinkers to show us the value of a culture rich in thought, how can we know the value of being unique, of saying something true?

It makes the blindly following of trends easy to understand. We simply follow the group because it’s the easiest way to go. When you’re different, people make comments, they judge you, and at the time it does not feel good. So why go through that when no one you know is different, when no one actually values that difference?

We are the nothing generation, a generation without a voice of its own, a people who let others define us, rather then define ourselves. We have let the desires to fit in, to be the coolest, to make the most money, grind us into a boring paste, a paste that has no voice. When people ask what our generation stood for there will be silence.

But it’s not too late, don’t let magazine pages, television and flash-in-the-pan trends define you. Define who you are and do not let anyone else decide. You do not have to follow what your classmates think, what your parents think, or what anyone else thinks. Strike out in the world and say something new, something real, something that people will remember forever. Look inside and find the real you, the you defined by no one but yourself, and scream to world, “This is who I am!”