Witnessing a lifetime

When I first clicked on the link that directed us to the essays by T.T Williams my stomach dropped. What I initially though was going to be a fairly quick assignment looked was going to take all night to complete. Much to my surprise, as I started on the essay "Commencement" I found myself thoroughly enjoying not only the writing style of Williams, but the message as well. I was intrigued by the idea of democracy being a constant battle and something we always need to be fussing about.
Although I was facinated by the ideas and themes Williams presented, what struck me most was one of the first parts of the first essay. Williams was describing her meeting with a few members of the graduating class of the University of Utah and how she heard "mature voices, steady minds speaking from a generation that had witnessed the beginning of two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, while students at the university." Immeditatly my thoughts went to a subject I often find myself pondering:  my generation might only be 18 years old but we've seen an awful lot and I wonder what else we're going to see in our lifetimes.

Like the graduating class of Utah I can remember the start of both of those wars.

I can remember 9/11and what my 9 year old mind made of the censored information my parents gave me. Reflecting back, I now find it hard to remember what the pre 9/11 world was like.

I can remember the natural disasters; the hurricanes, the earth quakes, the tsunamis and the over whelming responses from people all over the world looking to give a helping hand in the end.

I can remember the economic turmoil, the first African-American president and all the corruption our (well, at least in Illinois, after all, we do have quite the track record when it comes to governors) society has seen.


Of course these are things I'm always going to remember, but when I sit in retrospect for a while, my thoughts eventually turn to the future.

What else will my generation (and the 2003 graduating class of Utah) see in the years to come?

T.T Williams may have only scarcely brushed on the subject of retrospect but it definitely stuck with me and definitely got me thinking about the past and imagining what could come in the future.