Guilt of One Left Behind

There exists a place where she lives and I don’t

Where she survived and I succumbed

Let the illness float me downstream to a better existence

Where I did not have to blame myself for surviving this long

For what if she could have given more than I can?

I have a laundry list of people who should have survived but did not

Her name still burns in the past tense

My cousin, you watched me grow up

We both suffered one in the same

Addicts in our own rights, ill in an organ society still thinks shouldn’t get sick

I tried to join you a year and a half later

I bear a weight too heavy for me to carry, for I carry your memory and what you could have become

I am still trying to find peace

But I was sent spiraling in mourning, wishing it was anyone but you

I know the drugs feel too good and that the emotions are a hell that is a solitary experience with just your name on the door

Surviving is something I struggle with these days

On the darkest ones I always looked to you

But now they are darker

Maybe I will feel you on my shoulder soon telling me to keep on going for you

“Self Obsessed” – My A**

I am so sick of seeing major magazines and blogs publishing articles about how millennials are lazy and self obsessed, titling us the “selfie generation”. The authors are preaching as if they’re perfect in every single way possible. Older adults act as if we sit at home all the time doing nothing of importance to them, like we spend all summer sitting in front of a computer or tablet screen on social networking sites. In reality, that is the opposite of what happens. For example, I volunteered from the time I was 13 until I was 16 and got my first paying job at my state’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. I may be an anomaly, but I am still an example. I am in my second year of working at the same minimum wage job, and I see many more peers working at the same employer for their last two years of high school and in many cases through college.

Also if you want to pull the “graduation rates are lower and less kids are going to college than when I was your age” card, here are some statistics on that. According to multiple sources, 81% of high school students in the class of 2012 graduated, which is an all time high. About 66.2% of 2012 graduates would go to attend college the fall after graduation, with a higher percentage of females attending. Keep in mind this is happening while the cost of college has risen 400% from 1982 to 2007.
According to Bloomberg, tuition and fees have increased 1,120% since records began in 1978. With this, kids in my generation won’t be paying off our loans until we’re 35. When the authors of these articles were in college, they could easily work their way through college, but since inflation of college prices has skyrocketed there isn’t a chance in hell for us. Until people take the blame for their mistakes, my generation will have the burden of past generations’ mistakes on our shoulders. And everyone is wondering why we aren’t having kids when a kid can cost as much as a house that we will never be able to afford. But I guess that’s a problem for another day.