Apathy.

The term has settled in the pit of my stomach. I see my generation fading away into oblivion, scoffing at the underprivileged and rolling their eyes at their elders.

Indifference creeps into daily life, often overpowering those who seek a life of greatness and appreciate what today's world has dealt us. And so the question stands: to care or not to care?

I feel grateful to have found my way so far through the mind-boggling forest that is the 21st century, though I cannot be as hopeful for the rest of my generation.

A majority of my classmates feel they have a certain entitlement to things that no generation has expected before. They feel everything is a right, not a privilege.

The bane of this nation's existence is a lack of integrity, character and social conscience. We were born under a booming economy and things came easily throughout our childhoods.

Those who took for granted the pleasures of daily life now forget about things like work ethic and social principles.

The passion that my grandparents had for achievement has been smothered by a generation that, merely by birth date, I am a part of; laziness has blurred the vision of many young people that could have made a positive impact on tomorrow's society.

Throughout my life, the teens of the early 21st century have challenged the way the world operates, myself included. We have spoken out against conformity and have pledged to make the world a better place.

We have set the bar high and now we must rise to the occasion. We are the Trophy Generation and therefore expected to impact this country, but with this current lapse in constructive thinking, we lack the capacity to do so.

This change cannot be made by only the top ten percent of each graduating class, it must be an international collaboration of young adults. United we stand, apathetic we fall.

Apathy has never been an option in my mind and it should not be an issue for my generation.

Now is the time to care in order to save this nation that has developed over centuries. We are the future of America and the future of the world.

My generation can't see the emerging problems of the world because it thinks only of itself. If we can't see beyond ourselves and our immediate needs, how can we attempt to make the world a better place?

The problems my generation will face are countless: economic crises, energy dependence, pollution, war, discrimination. If we could only take off our headphones, put down our cell phones and look around at this faltering planet we would see issues of great importance calling upon us, breathing down our necks; alas, we choose to ignore them.

If we continue to sit back and ignore the challenges that face us, what will we leave for future generations? Henry David Thoreau once wrote,

"Things do not change; we change." This is our time: our time to believe, our time to inspire, our time to change the course of history.

This topic demands that I speak on behalf of an entire generation who is slowly becoming blind because they do not know what they cannot see.

Basic human nature, awareness, common caring and strength is how this generation, myself included, will reach within ourselves and implement change. We will get past this and when we do, any important issue we face, whether at home or abroad, will fall at our feet.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek," Barack Obama (February 5, 2008).