The Youth’s Identity Deficiency

Saturday, 25 June 2011 00:00

Written by Aaron Benedict De Leon

(Speech at the YEF- Youth Engagement Forum on June 25, 2011)

I’ve been asked many times what would be the greatest challenge for the youth in the coming decade, and many times have I told those who have asked me, it is better that we all re-examine ourselves first, re-examine our ideas, thoughts, actions and collective work as a constituency.

They end up with an empty face usually, and go through a brisk walk having more questions, than answers. They wander through the long road, seeking clarification and even more, looking for a sense of identity and a sense of self.

My past speeches, recollections have been about solutions, solutions, solutions, but unless there is a recognition of one’s self and one’s true identity, there won’t be a pre-condition for take-off towards the solutions we have been longing for.

I’ve been asked to discuss the challenges that confront the youth of today, but I will all ask you a very simple question, “How well do you know yourselves?” Have you even taken time out from doing strenuous school work or labor to examine what are your strengths and weaknesses? Has it ever come to you how many opportunities you have passed over and how many threats have you thwarted en route to success? Yes, I’m talking about SWOT analysis, but there is something more than Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The challenge of our youth today is finding their true identity.

If you will ask teenagers or even youngsters what they would like to be someday, they would answer you would often with a who, instead of a what. Bottom line- Personalities in the country have often consumed the definition a profession.

How many children in the country would like to be an artista more than a soldier, a scientist and an engineer? How many youngsters would rather spend a dime on luxuries than buy books? How many young people go to church more than the moviehouse or the computer shops?

But again, you just can’t blame them, you just can’t, because they have been conditioned to think that way, the commercial way, where faces sell, and values only tell.

How can you find your true identity as well, if you have friends and other peers who bully you that trends matter most than values, that leisure time is more valuable than study time?

I could not even differentiate the behavior of those who lead the youth sector, as against the individual inputs of our constituency.

How antagonistic and callous have some youth groups been, whenever confronted with issues that don’t suit their tastes and preferences? How selfish have they been when innocent and ordinary people want a peaceful public domain? How arrogant have they become in accepting the fact, that maybe, they were wrong for an instance?

Has it ever occurred to us that the sum of all parts is the same, no matter how much we change the group or the classification of people? The Associative Property of addition is what should inspire us to work together as a whole constituency, because no matter how left, right or center you are in the ideological spectrum, the sum will always be greater than its sub-divided parts, meaning that the result of all our efforts is equal to benefit to be received by our entire constituency.

The tidal waves of time have brought us to where we are now- rich in superficiality but poor in nationalistic pride.

I’m sure you will ask me after all of this exposition what would be the solution. I will give you an honest answer. I do not have the answer to your questions, nor will I ever hold the monopoly of providing everything for you, at the snap of a finger.

The way you ask, the way you react, the way you will create the next minute and hour of your life, is a reflection of your boldest identity. I will not see your identity right here and there, because identity is known and recognized when everybody else is not looking, observing and criticizing.

My humble speech will end in a very uninspiring tone. Yes, there are problems. Yes, there are a host of catastrophic events awaiting the future. Yes, there is a huge deficiency in the way we identify ourselves.

There will be no solution, and no matter how good or really good a speaker challenges you, everything else will be in your bare hands.

Your bare hands and your thinking minds will be your instruments to change the way they think of you, and the way they think of us.

I will not be messianic. I will not be prophetic. I just dare you to fail once again. You will fail. You will dismay. You will be hopeless.

Young people of this generation, enough of the baby sitting. It’s time to overcome the stigma of failure. It’s time to contradict this speech. Go out there and prove me wrong!