A quarter of our 18-24 years olds are unemployed – and that’s up over the last year. #spotlightni
— BBC Spotlight NI (@SpotlightNI) November 19, 2013
Between the ages of 18 and 24, I left school, went to university, worked in a newsagents/stationers, joined the QUB OTC, joined Dragonslayers at QUB, rewrote their constitution to include a convention, founded Q-CON, set up and organised the Star Trek Megagame and wrote my first book, The 23rd Letter. I do believe I was lucky to have my parents, my mother was a RMN and had a senior job in the health service and my father had been a serial entrepreneur with a series of ‘do what he liked’ businesses until he got ‘sick‘. The thing is – the drive to do things is not borne of privilege or luck, but it is a state of mind. The problem we are faced with is not that we have some of the worst deprivation in Europe and it is not that we have suffered under the threat of civil war for the entirety of my life (because, like it or not, the threat has never gone away) and it is not that we are on a small tip of a small island on the edge of a crumbling empire. The problem is that our young do not believe in themselves.
There have been times when things were not working out the way I had hoped and even my boundless arrogance was blunted. But a kind word from friends could often put me right and get my will directed again. Sometimes I need to be reminded of what I have done and reminded to be proud of these things. I may not be racing around in a Porsche or living in a mansion with a sea view but I know I have something to be proud of. I know this is not going to be the same for everyone.
We have and continue to fail our youth. We trust that the things that made us will make them whole. We give them pen and paper while they are bathed in the most distracting age the world has ever known. Every second of every day they are blasted with enticing imagery on how to do everything quicker – whether that is to lose weight, look cool, get laid, get rich, get famous. Our society lies to our children and when they fail to achieve all of these impossible dreams, they feel worthless. We are unrelenting in our scorn for failure. When even a supermodel feels the need to photoshop her own body for Instagram, what hope is there for socially awkward tweens trying to emulate them? We are failing to provide a safe environment for our children.
So, what the fuck are we doing about it?