90's Child

Weird thought, right? I am a child of the 90's, where the truest fact about any individual was that they were an individual. (A neon leggings wearing, large haired, Mario playing sort of an individual, but an individual nonetheless.) We were taught that we could be anything, because it was expected that the person our actions mattered to the most would be us.

It was probably backlash from the communal wave of the 60's and 70's. Like so many other things, it was just weirdly and bizarrely 90's.

And then, we grew up. And, suddenly, it was not the 90's anymore. The internet exploded, and with it, our knowledge that the world was bigger than us, more complicated than most Americans had ever imagined. Children born in this millennium take it completely for granted that their actions, thoughts, and video can jump continents, cultures, and languages. Even as a 90's child, I facebook friends in Kenya and Indonesia without thinking twice about anything except for the time zones.

But, I probably, most emphatically, don't stop often enough to realize the power that we have to change the world. The choices that I make, choices to help fundraise for a well in Zambia or to do Lent on purpose, really and truely do have the power to change the world.

It might be small change. It might even be so small that no one else ever realizes that they've noticed it. But, like water dripping from the roof of a cave, those choices add up, pile on top of the choices of others (because, in 2012, the truest fact about any individual is the way that they are connected with countless others), and, eventually, we create something magnificent.