Feminism and Equality

Too Young

You say I am too young
Too young to be a feminist
Too young to know my own sexuality
Too young to be depressed
Too young to be an activist
Too young to hate
Too young to protest
Too young
Too stupid
Too naive

And you are right

I am too young

Too young to be scared of the sound of vullers echoing through my school halls, burying themselves in my classmates and having to watch as the life drains from my friend's once bright eyes and slowly flicker out, knowing I will never be able to apologize for a stupid argument we had weeks ago, knowing that I will never be able to laugh, or talk, or smile with them again, knowing I will never be able to hug them again, knowing I will never be able to tell them I love them one last time

Too young to be scared of being raped by a man when I walk down the street in my work uniform because I can feel his eyes watching me and regretting not waiting for Anna to finish her shift and walk with me because now if something happens to me, it's my fault because I shouldn't have been walking alone, but I just wanted to study for a test

Too young to be scared of finding my best friend dead in a pool of her own sticky, crimson, blood because slitting her wrists and watching the blood flow and pool was better and easier than living or finding her body cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor with colorful pills scattered around her and matching ones stuffed down her throat because she'd rather go out in a loopy daze than try to withstand and fight the tournament and I couldn't make it in time to stop her, now I love life knowing her blood is on my hands

Too young to be scared of seeing a familiar face on the news because Micheal was black and looked a few years older than he was and the white middle aged cop shot him in "self defense" even though Micheal was unarmed and innocent and had never touched a gun in his life or because Abraham was Muslim and was holding a "suspicious" bag and was shot and died because a police officer said he might be a "terrorist" when Abraham just wanted to get home to his mom and sister with a jewelry box to give them, which now sits in pieces on the concrete floor

Too young to be scared of finding my LGBTQ friends killed, abandoned, or sent off to a conversion camp because all they wanted was love and acceptance but instead all they found was hate and rejection because they were "disgusting sinners" who were just "confused" and James is finally back from camp, but he doesn't even remember his boyfriend's damn name

Too young to be sobbing over such lose and grieving people so dear to me who were killed and died too young because no one would help them because all of their cries were "fake" because they were too young to know "real" pain

Too young to be scarred, bruised, bloody, and beaten inside and out by a war I did not start or choose to fight in

You say I am too young

And you are not wrong,

I am too young

Too young for

SEXISM

RAPE

HOMOPHOBIA

SELF HARM

SUICIDE

GUN VIOLENCE

And

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

To be normal to me

I should not be so desensitized by this violent world

So yes, I am too young

But you can not blame me

For my hyper awareness of our reality

My generation was born with information at our fingertips

And yet we have been told to sit still and be quiet

Because "the adults are talking"

But you had your chance,

And now, it is our turn to speak

And our turn to fight

Because our rage is pure fire, fire we have been harnessing for years

And with every ragged breath we take

Our lungs are more and more shredded by all this hate and misery

That is ingrained so deeply into our society

You way we are "too sensitive"

Because we are just "hormonal teenagers" who "cannot control our emotions"

And therefore, we "cannot have opinions"

But you can no longer invalidate our claims as we yell for justice and scream for change in the streets

Because the DEATH of our classmates

And the BLOOD of our friends

Has paved  the path for this revolution

Your generation may have won battles

But my generation will be the one to win the war

My generation will be the one to bring change and instill peace

Because we grew up in a hate filled world spiraling into darkness and death

And dying was never our biggest fear

Watching the world crash and burn around us was expected

But we fully intend to repair the damage you all have to carelessly inflicted on the world

We are generation z and we will be the ones to rise from the ashes