By Manuela Mesquita
Have you heard of the Gen Y that doesn’t understand or know the meaning of processes? They are used to getting everything now. They like things to be easy and quickly resolved. You probably have. That’s where I’d like to start this post. A few weeks ago, I had a very unique experience that allowed me to observe generational behaviors.
I traveled to a remote beach only accessible by boat. Electricity was rationed, our showers were cold, food had to be delivered and was directly proportional to demand. The Internet? Nonexistent. Cell phones? You only get reception in certain places, with the help of fisherman who make up 80% of the population. TV? You could only watch it during the 4 hours a day when electricity is available.
Of course I marveled at how these people lived, without information or connection to the world, without cars, without traffic, free of everything modern. But even in the middle of all this, something really caught my attention. While my friends and I hiked along a path, we saw a group of men. Four men in their 40′s, with little boys who couldn’t be older than 6. At first we thought it was a bit strange since there were mostly young people around. Then we noticed that the men were with their sons.
We overheard a father talking to his son as they hiked:
-”Son, here we are, at the highest point of the mountain. This is the moment where our victory starts, after the difficult path. Let’s wait for our friends and applaud when they arrive. The important thing isn’t who makes it first. The important thing is getting here.”
I could see the little boy’s eyes sparkle. The sparkle of a challenge overcome. The sparkle that isn’t very common for a 5 year old, especially these days. Once the friends arrived, it was beautiful. They hugged and celebrated their victory. Everything was being filmed by one of the fathers. Full of pride, he was stuck to his camera.
We asked if they were all together, and they replied that this was an odyssey! They had told their mothers that this was a man’s trip.
Later we saw the little explorers again. They were in a local restaurant, and the learning wasn’t over. While they ate, their fathers taught them good table manners, how to respect others, and how to share with their friends.
At this moment, a group of young people arrived at the restaurant. They had a lot of hiking gear, they wore huge backpacks, and bandannas protected their heads. They looked like professional mountain climbers.
Again we overheard the parents:
-”They are the pirates of the place. They are looking a treasure hidden in the mountains, and they don’t stop hiking, not even to eat or sleep!”
The kids looked like they were in a mixed state of enchantment and apprehension. Their eyes glued to the group of young “pirates.” It was probably one of the most memorable moments of their trip. Later, they excitedly boarded a fisherman ship, and ran on the beach, truly living a unique moment. Their fathers recorded everything, proud of having survived a weekend with the boys, away from Sao Paulo, and mothers, in a place with so little infrastructure. This weekend would probably stay firm in everyone’s memory.
At that moment, a million thoughts flew into my mind. Did we really have to go so far to teach proper table manners, the value of overcoming challenges, the taste of victory over difficulty, the art of learning through play, or the importance of time spent between parent and child?
Does one really need to escape “civilization,” fleeing to a place with no cell phone reception, where it’s impossible to connect laptops or use blackberrys to properly raise one’s kids? I’m sure this isn’t the case. However, in this place, so distant from reality, I saw something I hadn’t seen in a long while: parents passing on values to their kids. This was the way most of our own parents had been raised. They had learned the necessity of processes and various steps, to reach a final goal or objective.
I started to feel nostalgic for the time when conversations with parents were not interrupted by cell phone rings or vibrations, by people signing into AIM, or by the stress of traffic, and the lack of time to learn.
That vacation spent on that faraway beach definitely marked the lives of those kids, not to mention the lives of their parents. And yet, it also impacts our lives, the lives of generation Y, as we started to question if this is the way we will eventually raise our own children. I hope so.
