Kids today rule. I would love to go back in time to 1991 - 1994 high school with the tolerance and acceptance of a 2022 kid. I can't imagine how it must have felt for the gay kids - as an example - who had to hide who they were and listen to us bat around the word "gay" as a disparaging word. There were some kids you kind of thought were gay, but as nobody was out, it would just be whispers. How rad would it be for a gay kid back then to have the support of his peers and friends. That's a big regret I have...that we weren't approachable enough on that topic for even a single member of my grade 12 class to come out. At least at that time I think most thoughtful people understood it wasn't a choice, but you'd have thought we could have taken that extra step to be supportive.
Kids now have been inundated with bad news since the time they were born. 9/11. The Great Recession. Super high grades required for university. Housing prices are insane. Half of them don't even dream of buying a house; they hope to be able to afford to live in a fataing school bus or tiny home one day.
Trump was a downer. The rise of right-wing extremism and intolerance. Covid-19. What a tough go for this generation.
I know other generations have had it worse (WWI, WWII, Great Depression, etc.), but compared to Boomers and Gen Xers, I think it's way tougher being a teen now than what other generations still alive had to deal with (in Canada, at least).
Climate change is starting to hit us all. Prices on everything have gone through the roof. It's difficult to predict what the future will be in a way that wasn't hard when I was growing up. It was pretty much: go to university (reasonably easy and affordable to do), get a good job, buy a house at ~25-27, and you'll be set for life. That's what basically all my friends did and they're all doing well. Young people now don't have such a simple path laid out for them.
And social media? Ugh, no thanks.
Anyway, I have a lot of 15 and 16 year-olds coming through my house and they're all awesome.
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