In light of this historic election, I was extremely excited to see Saint Louis Uni-versity’s Quad laced with voluneers getting people to register to vote. I was excited to see various groups holding seminars about their respective causes. I was excited to see that green-energy guy in the Quad almost everyday, trying to raise awareness for his cause with a clipboard and a lot of heart.

I was excited to see students getting involved in current issues. Not sitting back and letting someone else have their way, but getting out there and getting attention. I was psyched to see that.

It’s not so much the case now, but in high school I was a little disappointed with the level of activism-or lack thereof-demonstrated by people our age. We are some of the smartest, most privileged, most capable people in the world; I saw people just sitting on that, doing nothing. With those qualifications, we not only have the ability, but the responsibility to “be the change we wish to see in the world,” as Mahatma Gandhi said.

I knew we had the ability. I just concluded that we didn’t have the will.

I remember that in high school, wearing peace sign shirts was one of the latest, recycled trends. I was moved. I was not moved, however, when one of those peace-sign wearers loved, not just peace, but the way the green shirt brought out the green of her eyes, and how it went perfectly with skinny jeans.

I would get annoyed, because peace is not a trend like furry boots or gigantic belts. It is not a fad that will be in this month and out the next. It’s too important for that.

I just remember thinking that if my old peers would have just made use of every resource available to them (newspapers, magazines, the Internet, parents, TV, etc.) they may have been shocked into caring enough to do something about the justice issues of our day.

I wonderd what happened to make my generation so lazy and na’ve, compared to the activism and motivation of our parent’s generation (who, for your information, did not have access to half of what we have these days to keep up-to-date). In comparison to our parents’ generation, however, ours is getting its derriere kicked. We all know the pictures from the 1960’s of protests, gatherings and change. I couldn’t help but notice that we didn’t have any.

I don’t expect everyone to become a bunch of tripping hippies-they all didn’t have to retreat to the forest and meditate to Bob Dylan-I just wanted them to be aware.

Now, I want to make it clear that apathy did not extend to everyone. There were many clubs who were always out there, raising awareness and hounding our politicians.

There were also kids who would walk into school with the Tribune and read it before class. (Yes!)

Also, I am not completely counting myself out of the majority; I am just as guilty of being lazy. I am just trying to change that old habit.

Jumping ahead to now, seeing students mobilizing for their causes has been really cool to see. Taking charge of the world we are coming up in cannot happen soon enough.

Our parents should watch out-we’re catching up with them.

Laura Casey is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences.