Generation Z is “TOO YOUNG”

You say I am too young

Too young to be a feminist

Too young to know my own sexuality

Too young to be depressed

Too young to hate

Too young to protest

Too young to be an activist

Too young

Too stupid

Too naive

And you are right

I am too young

Too young to be scared of bullets ricocheting through my school, embedding themselves into my fellow classmates and having to watch as the life from my best friends once bright and hopeful eyes flickers out, knowing I will never be able to apologize for that stupid fight we were having, knowing I will never be able to laugh, smile, or talk with her again, knowing I will never be able to hug her again, knowing I will never be able to tell her I love her one last time

Too young to be scared of getting raped by a man while I walk down the street in my school uniform because I can feel his eyes watching me and I should have waited for someone to walk with me, I should have waited for Jacky to have finished her test so we could walk together because now if something happens to me it’s my fault but I just wanted to go home to get ahead on schoolwork

Too young to be scared of finding my friend dead in a sticky pool of her own crimson blood because slitting her wrists and watching the blood flow is much better than living or finding her body cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor with candy-colored polls scattered around her and stuffed down her throat because she’d rather go out in a loopy daze than try to withstand and fight the torment and I couldn’t make it in time to stop her

Too young to be scared of seeing a familiar face on the news because Jordan was black and looked older than his actual age and the white middle-aged cop shot in “self-defense” even though Jordan was unarmed and innocent or because Elias was Muslim and was carrying a “suspicious” bag and was shot and later died because the police officers thought he was a “terrorist” when Elias just wanted to get home to his mom and little sister with a jewelry box to give them, which now sits in pieces on the concrete floor

Too young to be scared of finding my LGBT friends killed, abandoned, or sent to conversion camp because all they wanted was love and acceptance but instead they found hate and rejection because they were “disgusting sinners” and “confused” and Katy is finally back from camp but she doesn’t even remember my damn name

Too young to be sobbing with such lose and grief over people so dear to me who were killed and died because all their cries were “fake” because they were too young to know “real” pain

Too young to be scarred, bruised, bloody and beaten by a war I did not start or choose to fight in

You say i am too young

And you are not wrong

I am too young

Too young for

HOMOPHOBIA

RACISM

SEXISM

RAPE

SELF HARM

SUICIDE

GUN VIOLENCE

And

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

To be normal to me

I should not be so desensitized by this violent reality

So yes, I am too young

But you cannot blame me

For my hyper-awareness of our reality

My generation was born with information at our fingertips

And we have been told to sit still and be quiet

Because the adults were talking

But you had your chance

It is our turn to speak now

And our turn to fight

Because our rage is pure fire

And with every ragged breath we take

Our lungs get more shredded by all of the hate and misery

That is ingrained so deeply in our society

You say we are “too sensitive”

Because we are “hormonal teenagers who cannot control our emotions”

And therefore we “cannot have opinions”

But you can no longer invalidate our claims as we yell for change

Because the death of our classmates and the blood of our friends

Has paved the path for this revolution

Your generation may have won battles

But my generation will be the one to win the war

My generation will be the one to instill change and bring peace

Because we grew up  in a hating world spiraling into darkness and death

And dying was never our biggest fear

Watching the world burn around us was expected

But we fully intend to repair the damage you all have so carelessly done

>>we are generation z and we will be the ones to rise from the ashes<<