Prizes

I went to CollegeFest today with a few friends. It's like a big convention for college students in our area, it gets people from all over and Hellogoodbye was playing so we went. I got a bunch of free stuff and took a photo with the band so all in all, success.

One thing has been bothering me, however.

There was an MTV Spring Break-esque contest on the main stage that involved two strangers making out with each other to win...something. The main stage was near a hair products booth, which was pushing a new men's hair gel that was infused with pheromones to get women into bed. That's literally what the advertisement said.

I'm curious, and a little offended, and mostly confused. Is this what my generation has evolved into? It is something of a devolution, a breakdown in social protocal and even a sense of decency..or privacy.

We have completely, utterly, lost our sense of privacy. Our entire lives are the right of the public to view, influence, and view again. No one has secrets anymore, or even just the ability to be a private person, without a good deal of effort on their part to maintain closed doors. It's impossible to have your "business" not advertised, since we are so hyper social, between texting and facebooking and gmail and every outlet we have to express ourselves and build relations..and share. Share every part of ourselves, like we have nothing to keep within, to keep to ourselves, like we are public property, like equipment for Public Works.

Well, I don't want to be a traffic cone. If I must be a part of this world that is a nonstop Twitter feed of live updates and TMI and friendsfriendsfriends on your video chat screen, then I prefer to be a yield sign. Be as involved as much as you want in the social matrix, and involve me as well. I am not oblivious to the world that my generation has created, nor do I refuse to dwell within it. I am an avid texter and love sharing photos on facebook. However, I also choose phone calls over any quick email and would rather walk to a person to see them than IM them from my empty dorm. Maybe the world takes more effort now, to keep up, to be a real part. I guess I just feel that there are some things that must always be kept private, so that we not accidentally give away every part of ourselves to the rest of the world, until we have nothing left for ourselves.

Personally, I don't make out with anyone, let alone in public, let ALONE a stranger. I think romance comes of moments that don't happen everyday, and if we cease to allow our moments to be special and unique, we cease to have our dreams for them to happen. What motivation do we have to look for the special seconds in our lives, if we never make anything special to begin with? Life is difficult, it is fleeting, and it is not designed to give us pleasure for nothing. It is our responsibility to look for the beautiful, the amazing, and the different in our moments, because no one else is going to do it for us. I hope that my generation has not completely lost their sense of wonder amidst the brutality, the bitterness, that is our sense of instant satisfaction, gratification for pleasure's selfish sake, and the general roughness that often surrounds us.

I do not wish to return to a softer time. I wish to take away the fear and anxiety and early growing up from my own time.

My final success from CollegeFest? I got a little inspirational sign. It says "Dare to be naive." Dare to be naive. Dare to be trusting. Dare to like, to love. Dare to be fearless. Dare to save your pieces for someone, for something, for yourself, for a time when it matters to be a revelation. Dare to give yourself some value. Dare to have a voice. I did.