“All you need is love,” proclaimed John Lennon in one of the Beatles’ most iconic songs. As a symbol of peace and a human rights activism, it surprises most people when they find out Lennon was a violent husband and father. The words of pacifism were nothing but a way to make up for the former Beatle’s bad behavior. His hypocrisy is an example of how we are ruining our lives.

The example comes from decades ago, but there is no generation who illustrates this theory than us, the millennials. We have fallen into a deep, dark hole full of lies, excuses and justifications for our mistakes, as well as our lack of respect, integrity, commitment and manners. We abstain from responsibility and think we are invincible. Well, let me tell you: we are not.

Earlier last week, when discussing a project at one of my classes, I heard the following: “I could not do the activity because I lost the instructions handout.” That does not only sound like a horribly fake excuse, but it also exemplifies some of the millennials major flaws. If you truly had lost the handout, why not see the professor during his or her office hours? Why not reach out to a fellow classmate? Our generation is not proactive and lack basic social skills (primarily due to the fact that most of our communication happens through texting and social media). That may not be as important now, but it certainly is once we get to the “real world.”

Another type of excuse that I hear a lot is regarding to why one cannot or failed to do something. One of the most common topics is studying abroad. Basically every Kent State student says that they would love the opportunity to travel the world, explore other countries and experience different cultures. However, when asked why they do not study abroad, excuses start to show up. “I’m too poor,” “I’m too young,” “my parents would never let me” and many others can frequently be heard around campus.

Students know that the school offers several scholarships for studying abroad, that they will never have as much freedom as they have now and that if presented with solid arguments, most parents would see studying abroad as an amazing experience for their kids. Still, they create a non-existent obstacle in order to justify why they are not doing something.

The same happens with failures. Instead of taking responsibility for our mistakes and learning from them, we try to blame it on someone else. If one does not do well on an exam, it is because the professor did not explain the content well enough. If you do not make the volleyball club team, whoever held the tryout had something against you. This constant idea that everyone is against us and that we are not responsible for our failures is why we will never succeed.

In order to become the professionals and the citizens we want to become, we need to improve. We need to realize the hypocrisy, lies and excuses only hurt us. It hurts our reputation, our self-respect, our futures and our dreams. The constant fear of facing our imperfections is killing us. And let’s be honest, I don’t want to survive until I’m 90 but died at age 20. Do you?

Bruno Beidacki is an opinion writer for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].