Gen Z and Lucky Me
Yesterday, I taught the last class of my first semester at Denison University. I am meant to be here, my heart tells me. I’ve lived long enough to know a good thing when I feel it. I love my students and colleagues, and I’m crazy for Figgy. She’s the beauty in the photos.
Figgy belongs to my colleague Doug Swift, and I’m trying to win her over with treats and the plush dog pillow next to my desk. I was going to say she’s a rescue dog, but Doug says she’s a rare Appalachian brindle. “Very rare,” he says. “Very expensive. Face of a fox, tail of a piggy. Adopted three days before Christmas, so named for Figgy pudding.”
I’m home.
I teach opinion writing. For 15 weeks, I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of opinions from people who are barely in their twenties. My version of bliss.
Most young adults have experienced a lot in life. They don’t always think this is true because too many people my age have made a hobby of insisting otherwise. Most of us like to believe the length of our lives is the measure of our wisdom, but anyone who follows politics sees the holes in that theory. Aging is a wonderful chance to make good use of the experience of our years, but it is no guarantee that we will.
Occasionally, a person will express sympathy that I’m spending so much time with Gen Zers. I assure them I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Do young people say and do stupid things?
Yes, we did. Why do we forget that?
Constant critics of today’s Gen Zers might be leading with their envy. These young people: They have their entire lives ahead of them, and good knees. Meanwhile, many of us over 50 are trying to reconcile our eternally young inner selves with the faces we see in the mirror.
It really does sneak up on you, this aging. How did I go from being a young mother coaching my daughter’s softball team to a grandmother who can’t open a jar of olives without using a gadget the size of my head? Also, back up: There are eight little people who call me Grandma. How did that happen?
These developments are very distracting if you want to believe you’re that one person who defies everything we know to be true about aging. Such magical thinking is dependent on the absence of evidence. Hanging around young people involves constant exposure to the opposing argument.
Fine, they win. I’m not who I used to be. I’m also not the woman I have yet to become. Off I go to find her.
Hope is hard work, and there’s no retiring from that job if we are to avoid leading with our injuries and lugging around a boulder of regrets. The human heart is capable of big dreams at any age, and I have found new life in recasting the intended beneficiary of mine. At 20, my big dream was to become a writer. At 66, my big dream is to help my students become writers. Hope ignited.
Opinion writing class, by definition, assumes students have something to say. As their professor, I insist on it. They’re often shy in the beginning. They tell me they are unaccustomed to being asked what they think. “Oh, please,” I tell them. “You’ve already had six opinions about how I’m running this class.” They never deny it.
We work out some of the kinks early, which includes putting a stop to their usual preambles:
I may be wrong, but….
This sounds stupid, but…
This probably makes no sense, but….
We all know less than we should, I assure them. The goal is to do the work so that we can share informed opinions on issues that matter to us. The first question we should ask before deciding what we want to say: What don’t I know that I need to know? Imagine if all of us started an argument that way.
We talk a lot about voice of authority and explore the ways in which their lived experiences have given them expertise. Some students, for example, are the first in their family to go to college. They know what it’s like to straddle two worlds. Most students have worked in hourly wage jobs. They know how it feels to be overworked and underpaid, and often invisible.
How we identify ourselves in the world--by race, gender, sexual orientation, class—informs and sometimes limits our view of ourselves, and our interactions with one another. We talk about that a lot, and over time students create an environment for freewheeling discussions about assumptions, fairness and belonging. The light goes on and they discover they have a lot to say, indeed.
Because all of my students are Gen Zers, they regularly remind me that they have never known a time when children weren’t murdered in schools. For me, that is reason enough to keep showing up.
Do not wait for the invitation, I tell them, week after week. Barge into the arena of public opinion. Be the champions you’ve been waiting for.
"They have their entire lives ahead of them, and good knees." I love that line. And relate to it! Another is "It really does sneak up on you, this aging. " Thank you for the article. You keep writing, I'll keep reading!
"Because all of my students are Gen Zers, they regularly remind me that they have never known a time when children weren’t murdered in schools." I am SO excited for when these kids are able to get involved in making positive change to our current laws and regulations! Many already are and making positive changes.