I am tired of being politically correct. It’s hard. I’m scared of being thoughtless of for my beliefs but I guess that comes with the nature of being a 21st-century young adult.

Junior year has undoubtedly been the hardest year of my life. It is full of ups and downs, but I am thankful for one thing: Junior year throws so many opportunities at you to learn who you are and what you stand for. This isn’t an article about my political party or my current ideology (I’ve already done that), this is a story about my growth as a junior and what I have learned outside of the classroom.

I have learned that sometimes it is okay to offend people. You can’t please everyone and that’s okay, just try your best to not be racist. Growing up and maturing in this age of media puts an immense amount of pressure on kids to speak their thoughts into a mold. A mold that offends no one and also, benefits no one.

I’d like to clarify that in no way am I saying it is okay to start screaming hate speech at homosexuals or other races, but I think we all need to relax. I think some people take things too far. On Twitter the other day I saw a tweet of several young girls holding hands as they mourn the loss of one of their friends. The only girl that had her hands empty at her sides was an African-American girl. The tweet was titled, “But why is no one holding the black girl’s hand?” Immediately this innocent picture became a race issue, but if the owner of that tweet had known the backstory of the picture they would’ve felt like a fool. The African-American girl had asked the other girls to not touch her because she was so overwhelmed with grief and she didn’t want to have a meltdown.

Moments like this is when I really understand how terrible this generation is. Yes, it is true that we accomplish so many great things. We are innovators and world-changers, but we are hypocrites as well. We preach equality and open-mindedness when we ourselves don’t meet those standards. We have instilled in ourselves a “my way or the highway” mentality and refuse to hear the other side. I love the tenacity of Generation-X, but I hate our stubbornness.

I can’t speak about my beliefs because they don’t line up with the other 50 percent of people. I need people to understand how hard it is to write about what I believe because I know that anything I say is wrong. Oh well, I guess what comes with the territory of being a journalist in this day and age. I am done walking on eggshells and allowing other people to inhibit the change I can bring to the world.