From Boredom to Inspiration

Alone in the living room, tired with not much to do, I found myself flipping through the vast array of mindless junk that one can only expect to find at 11:00 at night on cable television. My body was in a trance of meaningless pictures and sounds. Suddenly, I felt the impulse to stop for an instant on a particular channel. Something in the image must have struck me because I chose to wait for a few seconds and watch the moment unfold before me. There, in the middle of my television, were two impeccably well dressed college age men. Both wore strong expressions of enthusiasm and gratitude. They were surprisingly eloquent, frequently using long complex words, yet they spoke with intense passion.

I immediately felt respect and awe for these four-inch long images on my TV set. They embodied everything I admire and strive to become. Their speaking styles, mannerisms, dress, and enthusiasm were perfectly in line with what I envisioned myself hopefully becoming one day. As I began to listen to what they were saying, I realized that my admiration extended much further than appearance and presentation.

They spoke about their generation, my generation, (our generation) and its future in America. Rob Grabow (a Democrat), and Dean Robbins (a Republican), told the story of how they put aside their ideological differences to work together to publish a book that would become the first of its kind. Their book, titled What We Think: Young Voters Speak Out, was published shortly before the November 2004 election. It was fascinating to about hear the challenges and difficulties that they had to overcome in the process of self-publishing without much money or prior experience. They explained that the book is a collection of nearly 100 essays, photographs, and poems submitted by college students across the nation. They said that they felt compelled to publish this book to give the youth of America an opportunity to express their opinions and prove that they too have valuable ideas about important issues in the world.

I moved closer to the television screen and turned up the volume. I could feel a deep sense of both understanding and being understood sweep over me, as though I was an animal that discovered another creature of its species for the first time. Here were two young people who were talking about things that mattered to me, in a way that made sense to me like nothing in my life ever had before. In that instant I had no doubt that I would aspire to become what these men were: smart, successful, motivated, and most of all, purpose driven.

What these two young men said about the potential of our generation resonated with me. Their words tapped into a lot of feelings and thoughts I had been having lately about the influence of youth in society and more specifically, on politics. I was fed up with the stereotype that youth can’t think for themselves or make a difference in the world, because we “don’t have enough life experience”. It’s generally accepted young adults have more passion for what they do than anyone else, so why push them away from all the chances to really help humanity through political process? That in essence, was one of the main questions Dean Robbins and Rob Grabow were asking.

Some people get excited by epic sports events, others by music or words, what gets my brain cells jumping are ideas. The times in life when I feel most alive are the times when I am presented with a new thought-provoking concept, that up until that very moment had been unconsidered in my consciousness.

When the program ended and I flicked off the TV, I could still hear their words pulsing in my head. I immediately went online and found the What We Think website, where I found both Rob and Dean’s email addresses. I sent them an email thanking them for what they had done and told them how inspired I had been by everything they said. It was past 1:30 AM by that time, but I wasn’t even half as tired as I had been three hours before.

Later that week, to my surprise and delight, I received an email back from Rob Grabow. I didn’t actually expect either of them would read my email, let alone reply. In the email Rob encouraged me to send in an article for their next book, for which they were already taking submissions. I ended up buying What We Think: Young Voters Speak Out, and stayed up many late nights reading it. I didn’t agree with all the essays of course, but I enjoyed every one. Some made me laugh, some brought me to the edge of tears, but most of all they inspired me. The essays reinforced the idea that I was not too young to do something big or make a positive difference in the world. If these one hundred college students could get nationally published, maybe I could too one day. In the pages of that book I found proof that there are so many other young people who care about more than the minute details of their social lives. It was comforting to know that I wasn’t alone.

It was at this point in my life that I was already starting to get interested in politics, but after hearing Rob and Dean speak, and reading their book, it helped motivate me to become passionately involved in civics. You could say I had been accumulating explosive thoughts, and those two men were the spark that set off the cannon. That year I would end up meeting Howard Dean, filming a short political documentary, shaking hands with John Kerry, being interviewed by a Wall Street Journal reporter, and writing countless political articles. These events have shaped who I am now, and probably who I will become in the many years that I still have ahead of me. I can’t help but wonder about the many opportunities in my life that I might have missed out on, had I not stopped at channel 23 on that quiet spring night.