“We will walk with our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.” Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke these words in a speech called The American Soldier on August 31st 1837. Emerson, and other philosophers, like Henry David Thoreau, believed passionately in logic; that real truths could be found in individualism, self-reliance, intuition, non-conformity, and simplicity. They believed in a social movement called transcendentalism, and as my generation heads in the opposite direction, I begin to believe in this movement too.

Some of the key characteristics of transcendentalism include individualism and self-reliance. Individualism can be defined as belief in the primary importance of the individual and to act in virtues of thyself; to act on your beliefs. In this day and age individualism is nothing more than a mere façade, a pre-fabricated idea that we are all instilled with, telling us that we all need to be “different,” but we have a need to follow trends, to be noticed. All that we know and all that we are is a result of our social influences. Why think for yourself when we have had media, movies, TV, magazines, and idols telling us how to think from day one? In the poem, I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman, he writes, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear…each singing what belongs to him or her and no one else.” Walt Whitman was yet another passionate Transcendentalist, sharing the many ideals of Emerson and Thoreau. What he is implying in this poem is that although we all share this title, American, and although we all share the same common soil, we are divided into our own individual beliefs and characteristics which we must embrace. For this is what makes America what it is: eclectic. Self-reliance is confidence in those beliefs. "The great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Emerson believed that there is greatness for those that can protect their minds and ideals from the outside influences of the corrupt world around us. All we can really know to be true is what we believe to be true.

Emerson wrote in his essay Nature, "In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God." He believed that if we can strip down all materialistic things that we can find spirituality in nature. He believed in simplicity, much like I do. I believe that it is in the silent moments that we find ourselves. It is so easy to take the late night croaking of frogs, or the pitter patter of rain for granted when it is being drowned out by the buzzing of a phone, the meaningless words, the white noise of a TV screen. It’s a shame that the little things have lost their true value. We get so caught up in this manufactured idea of simplicity (The commercial product promised to make life easier). How is acquiring mass amounts of superfluities simplifying? It is just an excuse to scratch the surface of every thought. To find answers rather than ask questions. As though finding answers as fast as humanly possible, rather than thinking about it will make everything simpler. In nature we can think through every idea completely, and in this we can find our own beliefs.
This is the generation for trend setting and following; The generation of hiding actual feelings in fear of judgment; The generation striving to be unique, and yet too scared to be different than the norm in clothing, in thought, in beliefs, and morals. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote in his essay Self-Reliance, “Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong is what is against it.” What we perceive to be right and wrong is different depending on our experiences. Transcendentalists live by their own guidelines. They take the time to block out interfering social influences, and search within themselves to find what they truly believe to be right and wrong. This is what makes them non-conformists.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. When was the last time you gave a picture that much credit? A picture may be worth a thousand words, but we rarely give each picture what it truly deserves. Why clutter your mind with superfluities? It is like supply and demand, the more you have the less it is worth. As my generation moves in a shallow direction, value greatly depreciates: So simplify. Be self-reliant. Be an individual. Refuse to conform, and trust your intuition. The flaws in this generation don’t have to swallow our unique characteristics, for we are the future, and we can be anything we want to be.