The future is in our hands. Rather than doing nothing and expecting the worst, we must work hard to attain our desired future. We spend the first twenty years of our lives preparing for the future. Whether it is great or not, it is up to us teenagers and young adults. Achieving the success my parents have accomplished would be amazing, but I cannot help but desire something even better.

— Lauryn, Miami Country Day School

I cannot help but be excited for the future; I am someone who wants to change the world. I think that I speak for most people when I say that the world is in a very unstable place right now: we are at a turning point and it is time to choose how our future will look.

My generation, the teenagers and young adults of the 21st century, is the one who has to make this decision, and I am very hopeful that we will make the right choice. There are so many passionate kids who recognize the current global issues and want to make a difference in this world— desalinating sea water, finding a cure to cancer, ending plastic pollution, helping to curb starvation in poor countries, etc. While economically, these jobs may not pay as much as a job at a law firm, or as an engineer, they have just as much, if not a larger impact on our world, and I feel as though that is a more important success to push people towards.

— Anna M, Glenbard West High School

To be honest I can’t wait to leave high school and head into my own future: I am ready to explore—ready to go out and try new things, to find—areas that will benefit me and get me one step closer to becoming successful in whatever I do. I believe that experiencing many different cultures, economies, and locations will help someone understand their place in the world. By doing this one can understand what they are doing and what they are doing in respect to other people around them. This could possibly help them determine what they want to do job wise and could motivate them to find ways to help others who maybe don’t have the same opportunities they do.

— Nitin, Glenbard West High School, Glen Ellyn IL

I think that the way that American Gen Z thinks of careers is going to change how economically successful we are. We have been taught incredibly different principles surrounding work than our parents were. We grew up being told to follow our dreams. To go after what we want. To find ourselves. To get that “dream job.” Our generation is one of the first to think of work as something beyond a means to make money. We see a career as fulfilling a dream, not fulfilling a bank account. I think that it’s natural that chasing happiness might lead to less economic success for us. But I would prefer to be part of a passionate generation than a wealthy generation.

— Lainey, Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon

Throughout the human timeline, we’ve made hundreds, if not thousands, millions, or trillions, of mistakes… We pass on those mistakes to the next generation. The war stories, epidemics, government corruptions, all of the weight gets passed from the shoulders of the old to the new. The pressure and being told that we are to be the ones to make a difference stays with us. Giving proof to the children that we can’t be optimistic, and that life will, at some point, come down to the worst. We’ve been told that we are the ones who are expected to miraculously stop our issues, our losses, and restore our livelihoods.

Yet through all of our troubles, we don’t realize that there are stories of truth, success, and a happy world…This pessimism needs to change. We can and we will make the world a better place. But only if we have everyone’s eyes and hearts set on it.

— Ivy, J.R. Masterman, Philadelphia PA