Faux Real
kbolilia@theguidon.com
We’ve always been obedient, non-questioning minions of the bandwagon, but now it has reached an all-time high. Sure, conformist sensibilities have been inherent in human nature but our generation—technology-reliant, Internet-worshipping, free-for-all, and permissive of excess and unadulterated public sharing—seek so much gain, and expect instant gratification to fall from trees like it’s the way it’s supposed to be, even though we refuse to lift our overly indulged fingers.
Perhaps, we’ve inherited a time where private sales and all that exclusivity fanfare morphed into the end all and be all of teenage life. Perhaps, living vicariously through the lives of celebrities and bloggers manifest our adolescent gusto, in exchange for callous perceptions and skewed life priorities. We think we’re rockstars—meant for life on the fast lane, and its careless notions of fame and fortune.
Perhaps, everyone is a stylist, photographer, model, or a blogger—saddled in pursuits that may or could be void of meaning, and immensely lacking in proactive motivation.
In a time of merciless abundance of this so-called youth revolt and “creativity”, inspiration runs very dry. We are propelled by the approval of strangers, and fuelled by the desire to be known—or even be hated. We’re always seeking for that next counterculture/subculture to identify with, like it would take away the painstaking task of defining our own identities by ourselves, and configuring the life paths that exclusively apply to us. I don’t know about you, but whatever happened to old-fashioned, taking-your-time kind of hard work, and the torturous endeavor that is self-discovery?
It’s amusing, really. To realize that we all thrive in a time of irony—we’re putting out our fire before we even beautifully burn. Inspiration is golden, elusive, and best of all free—but we’re unknowingly paying a hefty price: the expense of diminishing our abilities to light the match ourselves.
There is nothing wrong with genuinely wanting things at our age. We are young, at the prime of our life, nearing a crossroads unbridled with promise that it may shape the direction of the rest of our lives. This is not a protest, or a deliberate campaign to shut down potential life opportunities. This is a reminder: there is no need to rush. Access to a textile house, tulip skirts and ukay-ukays doesn’t automatically make you a designer or a vintage vixen, and neither does owning a DSLR make you a photographer—we can’t completely rely on what we’re being spoon fed with on a daily basis. After all, you can’t just upload success.
We want everything and nothing, but there is an importance to being un-earnest, to knowing the merits to an honest purpose and that there’s fulfilment in things allowed to develop in their own time. We cannot dictate pace or right timing, but we can allow creativity to be creative again—don’t do it because it’s just an obvious choice, or worse, because everyone’s doing it.
To us, this generation that we rightfully call ours—we’ve got our work cut out for us.
