See previous two entries for the rest of this post.
The final thing I want to discuss about my experience at the GA was the idea of "nextgen," or the next generation--which we represent! This term was thrown around during much of the conference, until the point when I felt a huge weight of responsibility weighing me down. Apparently, we are supposed to solve hunger, climate change, HIV/AIDS, the global financial crisis, and much more...NOW. We haven't done it yet, but we have to, because all of the other capable people on this planet, who just happen to be older than us, have decided to pass all responsibility on to us. Why? Because we're nextgen, and we're pretty much the answer to everything. Sea levels are rising? It's okay, nextgen will take care of it. A war is imminent in the Middle East? No worries, nextgen will do something about it. iPhones are only available on AT&T? Nextgen is on it.
While that's all a bit of an exaggeration, it does convey some of the pressures I felt. What was most annoying about all of this was that at the same time that panelists and speakers were discussing nextgen, I was sitting in the audience, feeling incredibly invisible. One session I went to was about Health and Human Services in Vulnerable Populations. I thought vulnerable populations would include the elderly, the disabled, the poor, the young, and so on. However, the session was almost entirely about elderly people, nursing homes, and accessible transportation for the elderly. One panelist said something about nextgen being there to take over, but I, as one of two nextgen representatives in the room, wondered how we were supposed to take over when we weren't represented or acknowledged in the session.
On the last night of the conference, all the college students had a discussion with Wayne Firestone, the President of Hillel International. A lot of different opinions flowed around the room, some controversial, others upset, and others exhilarated. We all had different experiences at the GA, and all had different ideas of what it meant to be nextgen. What was clear to me, however, was that there was an INCREDIBLE amount of passion in that room. We each had different things we learned from the conference and are choosing to bring back to our home communities. Even though the adults in our world are leaving us with a huge amount of responsibility while simultaneously disregarding us, we are still able to move ahead and to transform our world into a place that we can be proud of. We are doing wonderful things in our own ways, and I am grateful that attending the GA allowed me to realize that.
-Nehama
Sasha Guevara | 