I can't remember my first venture into the genre of the apocalypse. Dystopian? Zombified? General death, destruction, and anarchy? It's hard to say; the media is saturated with the idea.

It's pretty easy to see why my generation is so fascinated with the apocalypse. Like generations before us, we look at the world around us and think, "This can't be all there is." But rather than coming up with fairy lands and Happy Places, we have the apocalypse.

Where we read about a dystopian world, we see how our government spirals, whichever side of politics you reside in. Where we play a video game in a world of zombies, we see cancer killing off our friends and family. Where we imagine wandering around in a desert, fighting for life daily, we see how our food and products are less natural and more man made. And heaven knows anything made by man will "go to crap" eventually.

I've seen several articles and posts in various places saying what a terrible thing it is that my generation is so obsessed with the degredation of the world. But I think that it's not that we want the decline. My generation thinks it's already here.

But no apocalypse book, movie, or video game is created without the protagonist. A hero who can, against the odds, save the day. 

No, I don't think my generation is chomping at the bit for the end of the world. I think my generation is ready to save it. I think we're all prepared to sacrifice what we must in order to take what we're given and make it something better. 

I'm not depressed by my generations choice of genre. I'm inspired. I'm inspired to be the hero, to inspire others to be the hero. But more than anything, I hope that we're inspired to do more than just worry and dream about the future. I hope that we're inspired to do something about it. Fix the dystopia, cure the zombies, build a better world.