This is powerful writing, Sophia, and a well crafted argument about why Gen Z should be considered in a new way. What I think is so powerful is the way you chronicle the major events that happened during each of your school transitions, plus the fact that war was a constant throughout. You are right and I hadn’t quite thought about it this way, but you paint a vivid picture for me, so I am thankful. I am also thankful for all the ways your generation has prevailed and I am sorry (both personally but also politically) that right now is so hard again. Us older generations need to reflect on what went wrong and then work together to make it right. Keep writing and sharing via Youth Voices and sharing your thoughts with the world; we need to hear from you and also we all need to stay connected.

We’ve grown up mostly in a time of social and political change. We take a progressive step forward only to take two steps back. We were born into all of this we can’t change. It’s difficult to say nothing happened in the 2000s. But that doesn’t mean anything has been good. At least we all went through it together. Senior year will be a hell of a story to tell. (except the part where we all stay home for a few months)

I really liked this writing especially now because I have always thought about everything we have gone through just never formed it into a well put together article like you did. Our parents and aunts and uncles love to tell us how lucky we are with all this technology and instant communication but they don’t realize that we have to see all the tragedies through these devices. Like you said we have become numb to it because not only did we grow up through all these event but we got to see them in the palm of our hands and then continue to get bombarded with it. That is one thing I have really come to realize through this pandemic is that it is just a constant bombardment of negativity through this device that we are so “lucky” to have. Don’t get me wrong it is amazing the technology we have but its not always the best and I like you, wish our generation wasn’t classified as self absorbed because of it.

Hi Sophia!
This is a great post. We have had a rough go at it but we’ve gained great coping skills!. heres an article you might like that relates to your topic, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/04/02/coronavirus-were-owed-graduation-say-high-school-seniors/5115358002/
Love, Maggie

Hi sophia,
This has been a very tough time for all of us, but that is only making us as a generation stronger and smarter. We have been through a lot in our very short time here on earth, but i believe that we will come together and make a better society for all in the near future.

I really appreciate this article! It helps shed some light on what we’ve been through and what we’ve grown up with. We live in a crazy world in a crazy time and everyone is simply just used to it. I think we could all become a little more mindful, no matter what generation you are a part of.

This caught my eye right when I saw it. I checked the publishing date and was pulled in even more when I saw it was in January of 2020. This article talks about how there are only 3 cases currently in the United States, and about 2k globally. There were also only 56 deaths total. Now, we see close to that amount of deaths every day in our own state of Utah. This is extremely important, since if the US government had thought this illness through in the way you did, then we would be in the same position as New Zealand or Australia. The way we reacted to this pandemic was completely the wrong way. People are dying at a faster rate every day, and most people with a solid education can understand that this could have been prevented. Even I can see how officials could have acted better in order to stop the spread of the virus. The problem is that a large majority of individuals believed and still think that the Corona Virus is not real or is just like the flu.

Sophia,

It’s both interesting and heartbreaking to read an article you wrote at a time when the Coronavirus had only killed 56 people, when it has now turned into a global pandemic and crisis that has killed over a million. At the time of your post, the flu was the most pressing seasonal illness that we faced, and your evidence that conveyed it’s impact was compelling. To think that an epidemic in 1918, at a time when there were no planes and only 1.8 billion people on earth, was able to have affect so many brings that much more concern to the pandemic we face now, with widespread international travel, and seven times the population. Your discussion of the flu vaccine reminds me of the race to a coronavirus vaccine that we have all witnessed over the past months. The feat of now having multiple that first line responders, the elderly, and those at high risk are now receiving al over the world is an accomplishment to celebrate, but there’s still no promise of when life will return to normal.
Reading your thoughts on the “pandemic type disease” that began to circulate just over a year ago is like reading a prediction of the future, as you explained the gravity of a virus that so many neglected to take seriously. The coronavirus is, in fact, the “pandemic we’ve all been anticipating,” but unfortunately, I don’t think many really were anticipating it. If we had all taken the new, foreign virus as seriously as your post conveys, I wonder if we would be in the situation we are now.

This article made me think how little we knew about covid back then. It is insane how much it has spread in one year and this article captured the prelude perfectly

I am impressed that you wrote this in January when not many people knew about the virus. People traveling has been a huge reason for the spread like you predicted. Luckily a vaccine has been created that will slow the pandemic.

Hey Sophia! Reading your article made me realize just how far things have come between now and the time of the first corona outbreak. We never thought that the situation would become such a world emergency. Like the “seasonal illness” you mentioned, I distinctly remember the phrase “It’s just like the flu,” being passed around during the initial phases of the pandemic. It’s really interesting to see how our view of the virus has changed since the beginning of 2020.

I found this article interesting because of the comparisons of diseases and also the science behind stopping at least one major one, being the flu. I think it would hugely improve life and the health and science field to be able to make vaccines that protect against changing diseases. Technology and our knowledge continue to improve and it will be very interesting to see how fast and how far we can get.