I recently finished my third year of University. I live off-campus, and work in the dish-room for one of the cafeterias on campus in order to pay for food, gas, clothes, fun, etc. This naturally doesn't pay much, and there was one week where I needed to buy gas for my car, but I had not money. On my desk, I have an old pewter goblet that I had been filling with change. I ended up dumping all of that change onto the counter of the gas station, and buying something like $3.87 worth of gas. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to get me through the week.
People nowadays treat change like it is worthless. One of my friends has a huge amount of coins in his car that he never uses. One time he threw his change out of the window while we were in a McDonald's drive through because he didn't want to keep them.
Last night I thought that maybe this had something to do with our generation's low voter turn out. In the movie "Up" there is a scene where a married couple start saving change to pay for a trip. However, over the years, events happen that require them to spend the change they had saved. The bucket of change on their counter paid for broken bones, fallen trees, and a few other serious situations.
By itself, change is practically worthless today. However, when grouped together, change has the potential to be worth quite a lot. Older generations understood this, and still do today. They lived in a world in which all currency was physical. Those coins in the car were a part of their collective wealth, and they saw the value that those individual coins had as a group.
The newer generations are living in a world that is digitized. We have little or no experience with the value of a piggy bank, or a pocketful of change. As such, they do not see the value that they hold. They don't have a reference for what all of those worthless coins can accomplish together. I believe that this has an effect on how we, as young people, view ourselves and groups.
We believe that our one voice really doesn't matter in the political storm of today. We fail to see how we contribute to the group of our respective party, state, country, or even generation. It is true that one voice rarely has the power to change much. But combined with countless other voices, all saying the same thing, anything is possible. Regimes have toppled because the people believed in the power of change.
Thanks for reading and always remember to believe in the power you hold!
Pic Sources:
https://marcuspcannon.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/jingle-jingle-i-hate-change/
http://www.pinkchanelsuit.com/2015/09/the-paradise-falls-jar.html