My generation is curious, we query everything around us

Youths on phone

Youths talk on phones in Nairobi during a past event.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

One thing about me, I think. I think a lot. Mostly nonsensical things. Sometimes I don’t think at all. Whenever I walk past a stranger on the streets, I can't help but think what they are thinking about.

If only I had powers to read minds, to know what thoughts are stuffed up in their heads. But the look on their faces says it all. It’s tough, this life.

As I walk through the fields, I find myself questioning the grass. Why is the grass green? What if the grass was red, not green? Feels weird, right?

Then I remember my science teacher had mentioned something about chlorophyll, the green colouring pigment in plants. But still, who said chlorophyll should be green and not red? And who is this that gets to have a say about grass being green and not red, and who gives him the power to decide this?

For a fact, it’s not my fault that I am like this. I am part of a generation that questions everything. Nothing ever seems to get a free pass.

We will question everything; I mean every little thing. Why do we walk like this and not that way? Why is it that when we sneeze we close our eyes? Why does water boil at 100° and not 60°? A generation of whys.

I genuinely believe that I’m part of a generation that can’t seem to let the sleeping dog lie. An attempt to gain a better understanding of what we do, why we do it and why we do it the way we do it.

Most are the times we have been mistaken for a generation that has a knuckle for shaking things up. What exactly is up with this darned millennials?

As a generation, we have been called names — lazy, entitled, narcissistic, shattered, delicate, dependants et al.

Honestly, being called all these names feels unfair — you mean all that in one toothpaste, oh I mean generation, all that in one generation?

I’d say the ability to question is innate, you can’t stone us for trying to find answers to things that revolve around us.

It only shows how open-minded we are, a desire to understand, and strive for transparency.

I can’t seem to understand why they are seeing a fault in our questioning nature when all our teachers did was encourage us to ask. They are no stupid questions you know. They shaped us by the lessons and as we enter adulthood our questioning ability seems to be hitting the world.

We are just a people who are bored with normalcy. It is not in our place to just sit back and do 'standardised living.

'The usual way of doing things is boring and we always find a way to spice up life. It's not like we are suckers for chaos. We just want to live. To feel the thrill of being alive!

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