My Institute Teacher Says That My Generations Biggest Problem Is That We Talk Too Much

I don't know what he's talking about.

Actually - that's a lie -  I do know what he's talking about.  He's talking about texting, facebook, twitter, blogs, and other social networking stuff.  I'll say this though, the "older generation" is always complaining about how my generation doesn't know how to talk (face to face).  Maybe not the best choice of words on my teachers part but I get what he's saying.

I agree with him to a certain extent - my generation is prone to let social networking take over their lives and use it as a great tool for procrastination.  Or maybe that's just what I sometimes allow social networking do.  I agree that we shouldn't let our virtual worlds take over reality. And maybe (just maybe) not everyone wants or should know my opinion about everything or what I'm doing every second of the day.  Maybe my blog posts could be a little shorter (it's not like I write a novel every time I blog. Or post all of my pictures at once in a forever long post.)  Maybe I don't have to record everything through pictures, blogging, facebook statusing, and journaling.  Maybe that's a little bit excessive.  Maybe.

But I was talking to my grandmother the other day and she was telling me that she hates to write.  She told me that when she was growing up if her writing wasn't perfect she'd get a slap on the wrist and so she still to this day feels like she is being judged when she writes anything.  This is a really sad fact for me because the older I get, the more I realize that she grew up in a completely different world then I did, and it's a world I know next to nothing about.  I would love to read her journal and to know what life was like for her in the moment, when she was my age.  The more family history I work on the more I wish that I had the record of their lives out of their very own mouths, not just out of their family members and descendants interpretations, remembrances, and observations. I love and treasure my grandfathers personal history that he wrote about himself before he died.  I feel like it gives me a chance to get to know him even better.  I also treasure the history of my other grandfather that my mom compiled.  But sometimes I think it would be nice to read what they were feeling in the moment when they were my age and what life was like for them then.  I really like reading the journal entries of people in different time periods.  I went to visit the LDS Church History Library and I was impressed how many journals they have available to read.  I read the story of someone who was in Hawaii on Pearl Harbor day.  It was amazing.  I recently got to ride around with one of my grandmothers and she told me all about the people who had lived the places we visited and what they did with their lives.  She even told me some stories about her and her young family riding down that old dirt road years ago.  They were so different from me, and yet they are apart of me. I felt connected to them somehow.  I love hearing their stories.  I guess that's why I don't mind lectures from my "crazy great uncle" about days long gone.

Maybe someday someone will want to hear my generations story.  With how quickly the world is changing, my children's and grandchildren's world and lives will be so different from mine.  If they ever do, they'll have plenty to look at and read to hear our story, to see our world.