Burn a couch already.

I am sitting in Hale library, the main library on the Kansas State University campus, putting off anything and everything as long as I can and am just enamored by the mystery of my generation. In this building at this exact moment sits thousands of twenty-somethings. Some prepare to be doctors, lawyers or teachers, others scientists, engineers, artists, geologists or professional business people. Diversity of a group that extends to all ethnicities, religions and languages. Some of us know each other some of us know no one. There are those who sit silent, those who feverishly study, others make noise and carry on, while still others lay asleep in their arms exhausted and overwhelmed. Each and every person in this building has their own story. Each persons road that led them here is completely different, some may be similar but none are identical.

Yet, still there is one common bond among this ever diverse setting. There is fire in everyone here. When you are in University you still have a dream. Collegians alike are all building something. Some may be here to advance their pocket book, or to prepare themselves for the future, or equip themselves for others, maybe others for things far greater than my mind could even fathom, nonetheless there is a driving force. No matter the age, background, major, or motives there is something inside everyone in this building to do something more.

What if that something in everyone was more? What if that something in everyone stretched past academia and industry? What if that something in everyone was motivated by love and the burdens of others, even if it was the burdens of the lives of those sitting across from them at their study table? What if people made conversation with one another and looked each other in the eye as they pass by the printer instead of putting their heads down and ignoring the familiar strangers existence? What would the future look like if we took all of these people, some the most intelligent in the country, and replaced their fears and insecurities of one another with love? Just an all out passion for the best interest of our peers.

How can we equip the most advanced generation to stand up for something real? As college students we are supposed to be bold and intentional for the things that we believe in. I feel like I am surrounded by people who have all the knowledge imaginable, who are equipped beyond belief, to do huge things and change the world but don't have the guster or desire to actually make it happen. How does this happen? How did we come to the point that we are willing to settle with a facebook group or mass twitter to determine the outcome of something rather than physically demonstrating our beliefs. I am sitting on a college campus, the largest speaker phone to the world and it has been passed off as a congruent set of sidewalks and buildings. I am on a college campus, the largest mass of people ready to take on the world by the horns and it has become an egotistical, techy, lame excuse for social networking rather than social justice. Where did my generation go wrong? Where are the protesters and radicals? Where are the people with insane ideas and their opponents who bleed for nationalism? Why is the world controlled by the black keys of a MacBook Pro instead of black soot of the ashes of a burning couch fueled by the distress of passion?