It’s the 2018 graduation season. Millions of people will be turning the tassels, walking across stages, admiring their diplomas, and then moving to the next stage in their lives. Congratulations! And good luck.
After the last card is opened and the final “Thank You” note is stamped for delivery, I have a challenge for you. Well, I have a challenge for more than just you graduates; I have a challenge for everyone from the college graduate down to the high school freshman.
You know how people love to put labels on generations of young people? There are the Baby Boomers, The “Me” Generation, Generation X, Generation Y, and The Millenials, to name a few. While these labels tend to be used by the adults in power to identify, they also carry with them a negative connotation. The labels are often used to discount the power of a younger generation and brand them as just naive kids.
But there is power in youth. There is potential and energy and new ideas. What youth lacks is experience. That’s what we adults can provide. Check that, experience is what we adults must be there to provide. We adults have used our ideas and our energy to solve the problems of our time. Maybe we were successful on some fronts; maybe we weren’t so successful on others. A given in life, besides death and taxes, is that problems will always exist. Solve one and more pop up.
Look around at the state of things for the past decade. Are we adults solving problems? Or are we avoiding them? Do we have the ideas and the tools to solve the problems we face? Or are we throwing up our hands and walking away when our old ideas and tools fail?
That’s why I’m challenging the young people to step it up and face our problems head-on. The big problems can’t be solved through bickering and fighting and pointing fingers. The big problems are solved through multi-faceted solutions. Solutions built on discoveries. Discoveries that you are going to bring to the table.
I’m challenging you young people in college and high school to become Generation S.O.B. Generation Save Our Butts. (Okay, I stink at acronyms, but my only idea other was Generation Butt Savers…)
I’m challenging you to learn, to think, to communicate, and to dream. Train and discipline your individual talents. Use the incredible array of tools you have available. Work collectively to bring these individual talents together. Put the pieces in place to build a problem-solving force the likes this world has never seen. Use your potential and your energy. Glean experience from us older folks and from your own trials.
Generation S.O.B., I’m counting on you!
Dream big.
Demand better.
Let it rip!
Leave the world a better place.
Be Generation S.O.B.
Hard work is the magic.
THE COACH HAYS 