First World Patterns and Problems

Useless and Unmotivated

Generation X is helpless. We've been taught that we do not have to earn anything we're given, and anything we want can and will be handed to us. We have been sheltered and babied beyond belief. The term "First World Problems" is more than a condition in our country's youth, it is an attitude. 

We forget that the reason we have so much prosperity and influence in the world is because we have stood with our backs to a suffering world in many ways, focusing our attention on the next big hype that sweeps our country, like so many have before. 

We even experience poverty in our country differently. A recent Heritage study came up with some intriguing facts about the "poor" in America:

The study also showed that the average nutritional consumption was virtually the same between the poor and middle-class in America which is well above the recommended norm in most cases. 

So sit back and relax American youth, just like everyone expects you to. You can also stand up out of the lap of luxury you sit in and look around at the world, where not everyone is sitting by a pool drinking lemonade and eating bon bons. 

First World Problems from Third World Haitians

In 2010, the island nation of Haiti experienced a catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale. It is estimated that anywhere from 230,00 to 316,000 people were killed and around 300,000 people were injured. In the last four years, over $800 million dollars have been given as relief aid to various charities and relief organizations. 

People are still suffering in Haiti, feel free to donate to the needs of these people here.

Introductions, Clarifications, and a Few Loose Bolts

Me in front of Stonehenge, where I was last month

Name's Ben. 

Seventeen y/o, slight problems with authority. I have a golden retriever named Brody, he's retarded and he takes after his owner in terms of issues with authority. Doesn't really listen and is basically useless because all he does is sit...
Anyways, I started a blog because I provide an interesting view to a world that many of you people have left behind. I am in the precarious position of an adolescent, a transitionary stage from childhood to adulthood, set in a world that is also in a stage of transition which is interesting. Adults expect us as youth to be some shining paragon of hope or whatever and truly we have no clue what we're doing. Handing us the future of the world is like handing a five year old the keys to a Ferrari, we have the potential to do some amazing stuff but there is also the chance that we utterly destroy what we're handed. We attend "school" for the majority of a year and at the end we're expected to pass a test that decides where we go to school for the NEXT four years, which then dictates what we do with the rest of our lives, in terms of work, family, place of residence, etc. etc.
There's my "rebellious youth" moment. Really I promise I'm more domestic than that. I have hopes and dreams just like everyone and I have no clue what they are! If you find them do send them my way.
More about  me… I work at a hardware store with two Vietnam vets who are very typical old men and spend more time complaining than actual working though they both know a vast amount of information and have tons of valuable life lessons ever-ready to hand me, willing or not. I sound more bitter than I intend, but that's because in most ways I'm more of a realist than many people.