Waiting on the World to Change?

The magnet above is on my fridge. I try to keep it in mind when I feel like I'm just a kid and can't make a difference or really affect any change and who am I to actually go out and do anything useful or interesting anyway?

I have another magnet: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." Simple advice, really, but strange how often playing it safe or perceived obligations curtail us.

At the risk of channeling Sarah Palin in quoting refrigerator magnets, I like to use the combination of those two sayings as a kick in the rear: See what needs to be done, what you want to do, where you want to end up, and then just go DO it. Why not? What's stopping you? Only yourself. (Of course, I'm bad at taking my own advice...)

This comes up because, the other day at work, the song "Waiting on the World to Change" came over the radio, and my deskmate, a fellow VISTA, groaned and remarked how much she hated that song. "Waiting on the world to change?," she said. "No! You need to get out there and change it!"

I'd never thought about it before, but it's true. Now the song kind of annoys me too.

Ironically, the lyrics are actually purporting that my generation is NOT apathetic -- they really DO want to do something, but feel like they can't right now, they are being held back by the powers that be. And so they are waiting for conditions to change, for the time to be right to step up.

I see that, I do. But that's also bunk. Stop procrastinating and wasting time and fearing failure and blaming others. Just get it done. Go out there and take it.

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And we're still waiting
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change