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Value

2011-01-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room, he asked," Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said," I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. Then he asked again, " Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well," he replied, " What if i do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoes.

He picked it up, now all cumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20."

Moral of the story: Many times in our lives, we dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are unique, you are special.

Posted by, Vivien Stewart | Part time ballerina who has a strong passion towards dancing. She's a final year student doing mass communication, majoring Public Relation in Taylors University. Believes a mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.

It's New Year 2011

2011-01-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

It appears many people out there are really happy about the end of year 2010. So, what about you?

So, are you ready for 2011 yet? What are your intentions for this new year? Year 2010 has come and gone, here's a chance for everyone of us to start fresh all over again and make another year better. Put it all in the past and look forward in the future. What's done has been done, what's gone has long gone. Life is too short for us to look backward and regret mistakes that we have done. Be pleased that the mistakes have been done so that we could learn from then. That's how all of us are going to make this year a better year, right?

I guess, most of us already have a new year resolution. Looking at 2011, the word that keeps coming to my mind is "hardworking." Most of the people keep recalling back what they've done last year to make this year better. Well, honestly I have nothing much to talk about my 2010 because there weren't much achievement that I've done throughout the whole year. Therefore, I've set a goal to make this year a little bit different; which is - to be "hardworking." Although not many resolutions, "hardwork" is one vital point for me to strive this year - it's the key to all initiatives and success. Good ideas without hardwork - or effort to make it happen is merely a thought.

So, what's your resolution for this year?

People always says, the hardest part of anything is the beginning. Starting something new is like getting an airplane of the ground. It takes a lot of efforts and focus to plan it all over again. But what we can do is to have trust and faith in ourselves. Secondly, to be confident and disciplined. Set a goal, get focused, not only to reach them but push it to success, and then set new ones. Similar as mentioned earlier, we believe every single thing in life has to be paid tremendous effort to get something in return. Time is no more waiting, are you ready yet?

Well.... we shall see then.

Wish everyone of you here, happy new year.

Good luck!

"Time and tide waits for no man".

Posted by, Vivien Stewart | Part time ballerina who has a strong passion towards dancing. She's a final year student doing mass communication, majoring Public Relation in Taylors University. Believes a mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.

Awesome Christmas Party!

2010-12-27T21:48:00.001-08:00

How was your Christmas this year? Hope all of you had a wonderful time. Finally, the year of 2010 will be coming to an end! Pretty fast? Well, on behalf of TalentEDge, I wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have you noticed the photos which we had recently posted in our Facebook page recently? I'm about so share with you below on what happened then. :)

It was a Christmas celebration organized by our teammates- Chin Yee and Sangeeta. No doubt, it was a good one with full of foods and exciting games. And not to forget, all of us brought our own present to exchange with each other. Yeah, it was awesome. Although it was only few of us in the celebration, but we had lots of fun. Let's see our pictures!

Christmas tree decorated by us in the office, with lots of presents below.

Pretty awesome?

Melvin and I - Vivien. "Berpatterning"!

Left to right- Chin Yee, Lai Kuen and I - Vivien.

Although it's only Domino's pizza for the day, it's doubly fantastic because we had the fun people to make them awesome! Yummy yummyyyyyy!

"The food hunters! Habiskan all the pizzas!"

Left to right- Chin Yee, Sangeeta and I -Vivien.

Meryll and Melvin, trying to berposing again!

Melvin trying to act while we guessed the title of a movie during one of our game sessions. Guess what, Melvin's team scored a perfect 10 in the game! - Everybody correctly guessed each other's acting. They've really good actors you know!

So there they go, getting their presents for the perfect 10 scored. Booooooooooooo, because we're the competing team! :P

Bergaya sangat.

What about the next game? We had quiz session ala "Who Wants to be Millionnaire?" when we were given with tough general knowledge questions like: “ What is the Height of KLCC”, “What is the biggest island in the earth?” etc. That really told stories on who read and always in-the-know, and who's not.

Look, Melvin was thinking…….. (Shows that the questions were really, really hard!)

Meryll, Lai Kuen and I (From the communications department)

Jeng jeng jeng~! Time for a group picture for TalentEDge! Smile~

Subsequently, it's time to exchange presents which we have placed under the Christmas tree for some time!

Happy ending! Everyone has their own present! =)

It was actually TalentEDge's first Christmas party and credit has to be given to both Chin Yee and Sangeeta for putting up a good effort to ensure fun for all of us! We definitely had lots of fun that night and we went home with our big wide smile on the face (also because of our great presents.) What about you guys?

I have been really happy interning in TalentEDge because it's really a company filled with loads of fun, of course, we work harder too. At the mean time, I’m also learning a lot of different things and experience on how working life is (Hey, it's my first job experience you know? Lol). Through internship, I've really come to know that we could also have lots of fun at work and it is really not work, work, work and more work. It has been better with the bunch of awesome TalentEDge teammates!

Well, will come back again to share more about us with you guys soon!

Happy New Year 2011!

TiE Asia Pacific Conference 2010

2010-12-20T23:32:00.001-08:00

It was my first time at a conference as a corporate delegate and it was such an eye opening experience for me. If you don’t already know, TiE Malaysia is the Malaysian Chapter of TiE global, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship in the country.

As I make my way down that sloping flight of stairs in the conference hall, I thought to myself, this is no joke. Watching groups of businessmen nicely dressed in suits and seated in the hall, listening to speakers giving talks on things that I didn’t quite understand did really make me feel a little intimidated. (GDP, PPP? Really?)

The panel of speakers for the day. (from left: Sanchita Basu Das, Tan Sri Dato' Ajit Singh, Datuk Dr. Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria and Subash Bose)

The first quarter of the conference started off with speeches from the panel of speakers (pic above) and it was a good 2 hours worth of knowledge. Although it was my first time attending a TiE conference, I think they have such eminent and experienced speakers, each of whom shared their valuable insights about the India – ASEAN relationship.

The coffee break was a brisk 30mins but it was suffice for us to grab a morning coffee and some light food to kick start the day. I’ve also met a few students from other universities and it was great to know that I wasn’t the only student there. (Phew!) We had a quick yet fun chatting session with other delegates at our table and quickly made our way back to the hall.

Pastries and sandwiches for coffee break!

The serious atmosphere in the hall kept me quiet for a while until Mr. Stuart L. Dean went on stage. I know I appreciate jokes during speeches like this. :)

Stuart L. Dean, Head of South Asia of GE Corporation giving a speech on stage.

Q&A Session

We had a lunch break at around 1pm with the arrival of the honourable Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak.

YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak giving a special keynote address right before the lunch break.

Najib also mentioned on how strong economic tie between Malaysia and India will bring more opportunities in future investment. It was definitely one of the most important highlight of the conference.

Our Prime Minister receiving a special souvenir from TiE. It was a nicely framed map of all the ASEAN countries.

The main course was an oven-baked chicken breast filled with ricotta cheese served with sautéed seasonal vegetables and wild beans potato puree-bell pepper sauce. Such a long name it is but sadly, the food did not live up to my expectation. I finished it anyway because I was forced to… nah, I’m kidding! :)

Melvin chatting away with other delegates.

It was such a great learning opportunity for me and it’s definitely one of the far most memorable event during my 2 month internship. Through this conference, I’ve came to experience how it feels like being in the real business world *le gasp* and not forgetting the amazing people that I’ve met during the conference! Thank you TalentEdge!

Posted By, Lai Kuen | A 4’9 photography enthusiast. She’s a final year student doing Mass Communication in UCSI, vertically challenged, believes in faith, always an optimist and constantly in denial of her height.

How to win the heart of DIGI employers?

2010-12-13T22:41:00.001-08:00

If you have the intention to work in Digi, this post would definitely keep you on your toes. Basically, this is a post to help graduating students who are interested to work in telecommunications company like Digi, have a better idea as well as we are here and glad to share with you some information on what it takes to become a Digi employee. If you are one of them, keep reading!

Digi is definitely a big company, which you and I know Digi is a one of the leading mobile communications company in Malaysia. Yesterday, my colleague, LaiKuen and I (Vivien) went to Digi to experience ourselves how is it working in Digi's office and the people. Its office is located in Subang Hi-Tech, somewhere near Shah Alam; a place where people will always get lost all the time. I don’t know why, it's just simply hard to get in that place. At first, we were lost at somewhere else until we saw this “Digi Car”; then we follow behind along the road until we saw the Digi building. Seriously, the slogan of Digi has never been wrong – “ I will follow youuuuuuuu.” They follow me then I need to follow them back. *hohoho* :P

If we were not mistaken, Digi has 3 or 4 buildings around- the old one, the office one and the main one. And their parking areas only allow Digi workers to park; which means I have to park by the road outside of the building - a 5-minute walking distance from the entrance of the building.

Before you get into Digi, you’ve to register to get your own pass. As you can see above, it is just so “yaoyeng”! We are only visitors but still… they printed our name and even our company’s name. I think they are just kind of strict in allowing people to get into Digi. *forgiveness*

This is the entrance. You see, got body guard some more!

This is the waiting hall.

There are iMacs with chairs and tables which are made like the Digi’s logo.

Very cool!

These are the 2 people i spoke to, and they are pretty cool and awesome! The lady on the left is Jennifer & the man on the right is Shanker.

Jennifer - A lovely lady who only started working in Digi since 2 months ago. She seems to be very happy with her job. She has a degree in computing and IT and is currently in Digi Marketing. What does she do in Digi? Basically, in the marketing department, she needs to monitor performance, product services, value added services and introduce new products. Curious of their working hours? It's from 9am to 6pm. She adds, "The environment in Digi is more friendly and relaxing, the people here are very open and casual." Here in Digi, nobody has a personal office, seat or desk. You are allowed to sit anywhere you like to. They don’t have job grades, everyone gets the same benefits. Everyone is rewarded competitively.

Shanker- who has already been working in Digi for 2 years, graduated with a degree in Business, majoring in Marketing & Finance in the year of 2006. He is a very social person, loves meeting new people, loves online networking (He is usually online all the time!), loves his phone, his laptop, his Ipad! *Lol* He is in-charge of product marketing, specifically-broadband (partnership). He does the pricing, plan, promotion and calculation. "Well, working in Digi is excellent," he says. "The culture here is very relaxing and active; casual - jeans will do."

Our most remembered advantage of working in Digi as per what have been shared? Last year April, every employee gets an Iphone 3gs for free! (But don’t work in Digi just because you want to bluff people’s iphone 4 lah!)

Advice by Jennifer and Shanker for graduating students: You must have the passion, must love your job! Go to the biggest ever company you can, because the experience and knowledge which you will learn are different. It is advised that it would be good to go for a management trainee program where we can learn many other different things. It's true that we can also learn from a smaller company, but it's good to enhance the bigger ones; it might offer you a better opportunity in the future.

Not to forget, your resume letter is very important. Do not make any grammar mistakes! Besides academic qualification, show your best performance during the interview. It may really help!

Left to right: Jennifer, Me, LaiKuen and Shanker.

Interview in progress…..

Isn’t it pretty cool?!

Besides the cool place, Digi has cool food too!

It's slightly expensive, but believe me.. the food is awesome! I’ll go there again for food!

LaiKuen, Me and Dang!!!!! Our food - Spaghetti!

I usually cannot finish my food, but know what... I finished this big potion of spaghetti! Omg!!

Last but not least, I personally feel that Digi is a good learning place, not to mention the chilling environment there. If I’ve a chance, i would love to be there. But don’t forget, it is important to love your job and have the passion in it, then only you’re motivated. On behalf of TalentEDge here, wishing you luck; we know you will make the right choice! Good luck!

Posted by, Vivien.

Steve Jobs: How to Live Before You Die

2010-12-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

One of our team's favourite video of all time. The legendary Steve Jobs' 2005 Commencement Address in Stanford with his all time remembered "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" line.

For the same video with subtitle, you can view the video in TED.com by clicking this link.

Have you heard this speech before? Share with us on how you feel after hearing it.

Are you a loser?

2010-12-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

Are you a loser? Or not?

If yes, what makes you became a loser?

Many people come to the stage of handling their life, they started to think they are a loser. But why? The reason because they set a goal too far for them to reach. They've doubt in themselves which literally became their obstacle. Only successful people are always the winners in our society. Winners operate in a totally different frame of mind compared to losers, and that is why they always got the result that the losers dream of.

There's one quote here: " Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play with the cards in order to win the game." Said - Voltaire.

What do you call it a "WINNER" and a "LOSER" ?

1. Winners focus on solution whereby losers focus on problems.

2. Winners take responsibility whereby losers blames on others.

3. Winners find opportunities in crisis whereby losers complain about crisis.

4. Winners enjoy being in present and learn from the past whereby losers only live in the past.

5. Winners think about how they can achieve, losers give excuses.

6. Winners make commitment and keep them no matter what, losers make promises that they always break.

7. Winners make personal development a priority whereby losers neglect personal development.

8. Winners face their fear and accept it whereby losers dwell in their fear.

9. Winners constantly expand their comfort, losers stay in their comfort zone.

10. Winners take action consistently, losers refrain from taking action and lack consistency.

11. Winners take failure and learn from them, losers fear failure and avoid them at all cost.

12. Winners try different strategies to get the results they want, losers do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

13. Winners always set goals whereby losers lack of goals.

14. Winners do planning whereby losers hate planning.

15. Winners believe there are always thing to be learn, losers consider themselves as an expert even though they know little.

16. Winners are humble whereby losers are egoistic.

17. Winners continue to hone their skill every other day without fail, losers make little effort in honing their skill.

18. Winners dream in the day, losers dream in the bed.

19. Winners think about possibilities, losers focus on obstacles that will stop them from achieving.

20. Winners are certain, losers doubt.

21. Winners give more than they take, losers take more than they give.

22. Winners think and lead whereby losers refuse to think so they follow.

23. Winners listen, losers fight for every chance to talk.

24. Winners help others to win, losers refuse to help and think only about their own benefit.

After reading above, which categories are you in?

The LOSER? or the WINNER?

In life, nobody wants to be the loser; unless you want yourself to be. Remember, don't blame anyone who makes you became a loser now; but blame yourself. What can you do if you think you are a loser now? Are you going to help yourself once again or waiting others to spoon feed you? What you can do now is to change your own mindset, stop thinking how loser you are instead of how are you going to become a winner. Set a goal for yourself to accomplish, and decide where you want to go.

Do not give up; because one day... You will get everything in return for what you've paid of.

Become Everything You Are Capable Of Becoming

2010-12-08T00:12:00.000-08:00

The turning point in my life came when I discovered the law of cause and effect, the great law of the universe, and human destiny. I learned that everything happens for a reason. I discovered that success is not an accident. Failure is not an accident, either. I also discovered that people who are successful in any area usually are those who have learned the cause-and-effect relationship between what they want and how to get it.

Determine Your Personal Growth and Development Values
To realize your full potential for personal and professional growth and development, begin with your values as they apply to your own abilities. As you know, your values are expressed in your words and actions.

You can tell what your values are by looking at what you do and how you respond to the world around you. Your values are the root causes of your motivations and your behaviors.

Clarify Your Personal Growth and Development Vision
Create a long-term vision for yourself in the area of personal growth. Project forward five or ten years and imagine that you are developed fully in every important part of your life. Idealize and see yourself as outstanding in every respect. Refuse to compromise on your personal dreams.

Set Goals for Your Personal Growth and Development
Now take your vision and crystallize it into specific goals. Here is a good way to start. Take out a piece of paper and write down ten goals that you would like to achieve in the area of personal and professional development in the months and years ahead. Write in the present tense, exactly as if you were already the person you intend to be.

Determine exactly what you want to be able to do. Decide who you want to become. Describe exactly what you will look like when you become truly excellent in your field and in your personal life.

Upgrade Your Personal Knowledge and Skills
Set specific measures for each of your goals. If your goal is to excel in your field, determine how you will know when you have achieved it. Decide how you can measure your progress and evaluate your success.

Perhaps you can use as a measure the number of hours you study in your field each week. Perhaps you can measure the number of books you read or the number of audio programs you listen to. Perhaps you could measure your progress by the number of sales you make as the result of your growing skills.

Develop Winning Personal Growth and Development Habits
Select the specific habits and behaviors you will need to practice every day to become the person you want to become. These could be the habits of clarity, planning, thoroughness, studiousness, hard work, determination, and persistence.

Action Exercise
Decide today to develop yourself to the point where you can achieve every financial and personal goal you ever set and become everything you are capable of becoming. Write down your goals and make sure to look at them every day, then ponder ways you possibly achieve these goals.

By Brian Tracy

Create Your Daily Personal Growth Schedule

2010-12-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

There are seven disciplines you must develop if you want to achieve all that is possible for you. You can learn these disciplines through practice and repetition until they become automatic.

Goal Setting
Every morning, take three to five minutes to write out your top goals in the present tense. Get a spiral notebook for this purpose. By writing out your ten goals at the beginning of each day, you will program them deep into your subconscious mind.

This daily goal writing will activate your mental powers. It will stimulate your mind and make you more alert. Throughout the day, you will see opportunities and possibilities to move more rapidly toward your goals.

Planning and Organizing
Take a few minutes, preferably the night before, to plan out every activity of the coming day. Always work from a list. Always think on paper. This is one of the most powerful and important disciplines of all for high performance.

Concentration on your Highest-Value Activities
Your ability to work single-mindedly on your most important task will contribute as much to your success as any other discipline you can develop.

Exercise and Proper Nutrition
Your health is more important than anything else. By disciplining yourself to exercise regularly and to eat carefully, you will promote the highest possible levels of health and fitness throughout your life.

Learning and Growth
Your mind is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.

Time for Important People in Your Life
Relationships are everything. Be sure that in climbing the ladder of success, you do not find it leaning against the wrong building. Build time for your relationships into every day, no matter how busy you get.

Time for Important People in Your Life
These seven disciplines will ensure that you perform at the highest level and get the greatest satisfaction and results from everything you do. Study these seven disciplines and then make a plan for how you can incorporate each of them into your daily life.

Develop A Prosperity Consciousness

2010-12-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

The starting point of all riches is the development of a prosperity consciousness. You must become a financial success in your thinking long before you achieve it in your reality. Both poverty and riches are the result of a state of mind, and the most important single step you ever take on the road to wealth and financial independence is the decision to change your thinking, to impress into your mind an unshakable belief that you can and will achieve your financial goals. This must happen before anything else happens.

Think And Grow Rich
When I was growing up, I was fascinated by stories of successful men and women and how they made and lost their fortunes, and then made them over again. I read about the importance of a prosperity consciousness in the book, Think And Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, several times. But I never fully understood what it meant until about five years ago. Then it hit me and I’ve never been quite the same since. Every aspect of my life has improved dramatically, especially in the area of accumulating wealth, since I finally understood what is meant by a prosperity consciousness.

Two Great Discoveries
Here are two of the most exciting principles ever discovered in the long search by mankind for the secrets of health, happiness and great personal wealth.

All Causation is Mental
The first principle is this. All causation is mental. That means that everything that you are or ever will be will be a result of how you use your mind. You are merely a mind with a body to carry it around with. The entire man made world that you see is simply an expression of thought. Your entire life is an expression of your own thinking. And since the quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life, if you improve the quality of your thinking, you must, you will, inevitably improve the quality of your life.

The Law of Expectations
The second principle is what we call the law of expectations. This law says that whatever you expect with confidence, positive or negative, becomes your reality. If you confidently expect to succeed, if you confidently expect to learn something from every experience, if you confidently expect to become wealthy as a result of applying your talents and abilities to your opportunities and you maintain that attitude of confident expectations long enough, it will become your reality. It will give you a positive optimistic cheerful attitude that will cause people to want to help you, and will cause things to happen the way you want them to happen.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to practice these principles in your day to day life:

First, start thinking today in a positive, optimistic, confident way about personal and financial success. Continually imagine what differences it would make in your life if you were financially independent. This is the starting point of developing a prosperity consciousness.

Second, develop your own attitude of positive expectations. Look for the good in every situation. Look for the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty. Be positive and cheerful about everything that happens and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your life.

By: Brian Tracy

Ladder Over Obstacles

2009-11-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

It was a day of brilliant exchange of experience, views and insights for the participants of the first session of the Plugged Series, Challenge.

Despite examination period, undergraduates from as far as Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) in Bangi braved the heavy traffic to be present for the session in Starbucks Jaya One, Petaling Jaya. Apart of listening to the opinions of the guests, these 20 participants were also voicing out their concerns on some of the challenges they faced in building their skills as per the expectations of the prospect employers while being in unicollege. During the discussion, many solutions addressing the concerns were also presented.

Among the respectable guests who were present in the session were Siva Chandran, Marketing Director of MalaysiaKini and Managing Editor of Voize.my and Wong Mei Kuen, Recruitment and Integration Manager of L’oreal Malaysia.

The session of Challenge covered important questions such as what are typically the challenges faced by employers when recruiting fresh talents and what are graduates’ barriers to

learning in acquiring soft skills besides academics while being in university and college. Subsequently, some of the potential solutions were explored.

When the crowd present were being asked about the question whether it is true that youths today think they know everything, the guests brought out really good points to be pondered. Regardless of the amount and intensity of the knowledge they have, positive attitude apparently is what employers value the most as Jonathan and Siva put it, “Confidence and arrogance is only a point different. It is the matter of how you strike the balance because too much of confidence will project the attitude of arrogance.”

Identifying the preferred style of the employer is easy but how you “sell” yourself can be difficult. However, the crowd brought out interesting ideas in going against the norm in impressing your employers. However, they are all summed up by Mei Kuen in the ability to being effective during the selection process, “Read the interviewer.”

The crowd also came to the point to understand that it is important to be ourselves during the interview. It is important to understand the interviewer and at the same time bring out the best in us according to what is valued is never easy, as how Kenneth, a student from Uniten put it, “Even if you have the best idea in the world, if you can't talk, you can't excel still.”

Some claimed that passion, instead, is the key to success, as Tilibban, another participant from Uniten said, “I agree that passion is important but academic excellence is what you can offer to the employers.”

Tilibban: “I agree that passion is important but academic excellence is what you can offer to the employers.”

The guests and participants of the day concluded with thoughts shared on how far self-regulation and initiative-driven attitude can assist the fresh talents although it is not something that everybody is aware of, when Michael Tan said, “We refuse to initiate because we have no goals and direction in life.” Siva added, “The gap can be closed by getting students to involve in more practical elements in campus.”

The first Plugged session was proven to be a gathering of pro-active undergraduates and compassionate guests who are willing to share and learn from each other.

“It was really a good session as it promoted mutual understanding towards challenges faced by each other (employers and fresh talents). More sessions like this should be done. Will definitely ask my friend to attend the next session in the series,” said Ming Nyet, a student from UTAR.

Plugged series had continued with its subsequent topic, A Choice of Path last 10th November 2009 in the same venue. Among the guests present were Ahmad Zakir Jaafar, Co-Founder and CEO of 1901 HotDogs and Ramkumar, Former Regional Manager of Corel and current Director of Zuna International Ltd.

For more information on Plugged series and other initiatives of PluggED, you can also follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TEPlugged or you can be updated LIVE from the session day by following us via http://search.twitter.com by typing #TEPlugged in the search bar.

My Generation

2009-10-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

“Individualistic. Wild. Reckless. Emotionally unstable.”

People have a need to categorize and stereotype things into neat compartments that they can understand. When it comes to young people, adults often think along pretty much the same lines as mentioned above.

And it’s true that there are certain aspects of being a young person that apply across the board, and if you ask me to sum them up in three words, I would pick: Potential. Talent. Passion.

Yes, in the past young people have done some things that led to such warped thinking that adolescence is a time of irrational, uncontrolled behavior. We had student riots and demonstrations gone bad. We had the hippie movement that preached love but practiced the messy culture of free sex and drugs.

It’s all too easy to write youths off as self-absorbed and immature, but as a young person, I ask you to consider otherwise.

I know past generations of young people may have wasted their youth pursuing frivolous fancies, but maybe we need to open our eyes and see that this generation of young people – my generation – is changing and evolving, and learning from the mistakes of the past.

Not all young people are self-centered, rebellious, money-minded, and shallow. Not in my generation, at least.

Let me tell you about my generation.

My generation is blessed with much more than previous generations not just in terms of technology, but the fact that with technology, education, and the opportunity to travel overseas to study, we are exposed to many different cultures and ways of living.

As a result we are very conscious of our actions and their consequences, and we are also aware that we have the freedom of choice to live a life that is fulfilling, whatever that may mean to different people. And this has opened our eyes to the vast possibilities the world holds for us.

My generation of youth is very socially aware and community-minded. We have a need for connection. We value peace, unity, and tolerance. We’re passionate about seeing people come together to support a cause, fight for justice, or just to connect. We are concerned about issues ranging from the environment to human rights to world hunger to genocide to politics even.

We believe in living for causes that are bigger than ourselves.

Just look at the increasing number of youth-organized charity/fund-raising events, or browse through recent issues of youth magazines.

My generation of young people is self-directed. We understand that our future, and society’s future, lies in our hands. We don’t need validation from other people – we seek it within ourselves. Look at the numerous new businesses sprouting up started by budding young entrepreneurs, some with barely more than a secondary school education.

My generation of young people is down-to-earth. We’re tired of empty promises, short-lived hype, and unrealistic expectations. We don’t want to hear another feel-good pep talk or attend another motivational seminar. No, my generation of young people is more than just a generation of dreamers.

We take action. We are innovative and resourceful. We want to know what we need to do to get things done. And then we do it.

With the great blessings we’ve been given, I want to see my generation making a positive impact on the world we live in – and I know it is possible, using the knowledge and experiences we’ve gained to do our part in giving back to the local and global community.

Whether it is through involvement in environmental causes, relief/welfare work, or even through advocating and talking about these causes, I believe change is possible. We have done so much damage to our planet and each other through wars, destruction of rainforests, and etc, but I truly believe that my generation has the potential to reverse some of the mistakes we made, if we choose to do so.

My generation of young people is not like past generations of young people. But it’s only because we look at the past and realize that there are lessons to learn. And then maybe, just maybe, from learning those lessons, we can determine the future.

By Crystal Cha | 19 years young. Lover of words, beauty, and magic. Dreamer of dreams. Currently finishing her last semester of a Diploma in Mass Communication at Life College. She writes, bakes, sings, takes photographs, and, occasionally, composes songs and dances. She also blogs at www.burnoutbrightly.blogspot.com