I have never felt as old as I did during the Tufts Dance Collective (TDC) shows last weekend. I enjoyed TDC no less than I did when I participated freshman year, but back then I remained in awe of the senior girls who seemed so much more sophisticated and glamorous than I was, and this year, I was staring at the freshman and sophomore girls in my dance wondering how it is that someone as ancient as me is still permitted to go to school at the same institution as people as young as them. I’m only 22, and I know that I cannot be considered old by any reasonable standard. However, the four years that stand between myself and my youngest classmates may indicate a generational gap. This gap is defined by significant changes to the bank of pop cultural influences that informs our senses of humor, worldy wisdom, and even our idea of school and the scholarly experience.

If everyone in the world lived exactly the way I do, it would take four Earths to support us all. Sound bad? My carbon footprint here at Tufts is actually well below the national average; my carbon footprint at home in LA (where heating in the winter is a non-issue) is even lower. Still, four Earths. What does this mean for the world, and for our future? Well, first of all, since we have only one Earth, and we’re giving it a rough time as is, the majority of the world can’t be living the way most of us do. For every one of us who takes an extensive online carbon footprint quiz (on our laptops, plugged into the outlet of the wall of our house, which we got to in a car or a plane, etc., etc.), there is someone who, if they took this quiz, would have practically no carbon footprint at all. For everyone whose lifestyle would require four Earths to support the entire population, there must be someone whose lifestyle requires one quarter of an earth. There must be a balance.