I am worried for my generation. We seem so celebrity-obsessed, selfish and shallow. Girls talk about getting plastic surgery as a Sweet 16 present, and worse, some parents indulge them! “Oh well, if it makes them feel better about themselves, why not?” they say. Whatever happened to building confidence by accomplishing something good? That seems to be an idea of the past. Now the only way to feel better is to nip and tuck and sculpt yourself until you look like Barbie.

Teenage priorities seem seriously skewed. I asked 20 kids in my grade two questions. The first was who left Jennifer Aniston and what is the name of the woman he left her for? They all knew.

The second question: who is the Prime Minister of Canada? I live in Canada on the border with the United States, so a lot of the TV stations are American. I was half expecting some kids to name an American but the answers I got astounded me! Of the 20 people, only one got it right, and it took him a lot of time to figure it out. In the end he could only recall the Prime Minister’s last name. (The answer, by the way, is Stephen Harper.) One girl, when I told her who our Prime Minister was, responded, “Oh, I was pretty sure he was the vice president of the United States.” I couldn’t help but laugh at first, but then I thought, This is my generation! Is this the future of the world?

Hopefully people change as they mature and spend more time learning about current events, because otherwise, sooner or later, someone’s going to vote a movie star into office. Oops, that’s already happened!