Actor Donny Pangilinan represents everything we like about Generation Z: steadfast ambition, a conscientious approach to life, and an effortless sense of normalcy that we millennials just don’t get.
If Donny and I, by some stroke of time travel magic, had been classmates in high school, we probably wouldn’t have been friends. He was everything I wasn’t: a well-dressed, popular kid with good posture who was also part of the basketball varsity team (worldwide, the basketball varsity team is arguably the most popular varsity team. Don’t fight me on this). He can also dance well. Obviously.
While I hovered between social circles, trying out for the table tennis and badminton varsity team and joining the book club in an attempt to gather any—what do the kids call it? clout?—I would imagine people gravitated towards him without any effort on his part. He’s pretty much void of any problems at a moment’s glance, save for what I imagine would be the minor school misunderstandings or semi-secret relationship mishaps normal in high school kids.
And I know this because although he’s already in college, taking up multimedia arts in UP, and it’s been approximately eight years since I was in high school, I can see the difference between us. It’s the difference between millennials (I’m 23) and Generation Z (he’s 20). And the biggest difference was that Donny isn’t a humble person.
Let me explain: humility and confidence are two different, mutually exclusive things. Both are valued in our society. Juxtapose the two in social settings and you would see that humility is valued above confidence. Humility makes confident people more likeable. But it also makes them disingenuous. When we want to be humble, we abase ourselves and distance ourselves from our own self-respect to hopefully gain the respect of others. A confident person who isn’t humble can be seen as arrogant. Arrogant: probably the most reductive word uttered to the youth of today.
Denne historien er fra July - Sept 2018-utgaven av Scout.
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Denne historien er fra July - Sept 2018-utgaven av Scout.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Girl of the year
After years on hiatus, 17-year-old Ylona Garciaa has found her way back to her first love: music
Walking on a Tightrope
The Binisaya Film Festival grew from pop-up screenings in beaches, rooftops, basements and basketball courts. How did founder Keith Deligero go against the tide?
URBAN DISRUPTION
As street art falls into the trap of commercialism, collectives like koloWn of Cebu reclaim urban spaces through works that dare to disrupt
Take no prisoners
At 13 years old, Alex Bruce has already built a name for herself in the local hip-hop scene
Paperback dreams
As print was beginning its decline, we were passionate, young creatives who wanted to resuscitate publishing—even if it meant making our own magazines
Putting the spotlight on the South
Run by DJs, MCs and dancers, Laguna Hip-hop is ready to break borders with their growing community
Bekiand the great Gay language
Our local gay lingo is radical in nature
Baybayin: a renewal through art
Filipino-American Baybayin artist Kristian Kabuay talks about Baybayin as a didactic art form that bridges past and present
Wild card
Marco Gallo never dreamt of becoming an actor, so why is he working hard to be the best one out there?
Postcards after the drug war
It went from promises to end illegal drugs in three to six months, to countless protests from human rights activists, and a vice president appointed and (eventually fired) to head the government’s campaign on illegal drugs.
