I had the opportunity to attend We Day 2013 in Vancouver. Links and photos to come soon. But here is the big lesson. I suppose being, as I am, on the dark side of 40. I’m bound to be more jaded, less energetic, prone to bouts of adultness. Although I was fully present, throughout the day-long event, thoughts, some of them just observations, some of them a bit more than that, bubbled up. Like, how the day was totally designed for the click-speed generation. No segment was longer than 5 minutes, songs by pop artists, speeches by world leaders, dance numbers and peer presenters….like a play list on hyper-party-shuffle. And I thought how it was unrealistic to tell these almost 20 000 young people that they could, should and must inspire needed change for our world.

And then I really got present, in my almost-50-year old self, and said “hey, wait a minute here….think this through”. Why was I there? I had coordinated a charity project because I had been inspired to do by Taylor Conroy. Another adult, but almost a generation younger than I. How did he get inspired to do things like build schools in Africa? Through the work of the teenaged Craig Keilberger. But this telegraphs down even more, as I heard Craig speak of being a grade 7 student inspired by a fellow child in India, Iqbal Masih. And throughout the day, other stories compounded this feeling-this overwhelming joy in realizing I was wrong, that my jadedness was misplaced….not only is it possible that this generation of clicking, twerking, memeing, vining, tweeting, digital warriors could effect change, obviously they are the best ones for the job. It’s simply my good luck to be around to ride their coat tails.