[ WP ] You were born on a colonizing spacecraft on your way to a distant star . You are the middle generation of history ; born to late to have seen Earth , and to early to live to see your destination .

The thing about living on a space ship is, life still needs to continue as normal. We still need teachers to teach children, doctors to keep everyone healthy and treat injuries and illnesses, engineers to fix things and invent new ones, actors, artists, writers, musicians, hair stylists, janitors, grocery store clerks…basically, everything we would have had on Earth, and will presumably have by the time we reach our destination, years after the death of my generation, poetically dubbed `` The Generation Lost in Space.'' 
 
 There are a lot of people who wax philosophical about this. They learn the history, hear the elders' accounts of life on Earth, and listen to the propaganda of how wonderful our new planet will be. They wonder what our purpose is, other than to act as a generational intermediary, a means to continue the human race until we get where we're going. We're a generation without a purpose, they say. Many of the friends I grew up with feel this way. They've dropped out of school, refuse to get jobs, and spend the day in drunken, high leisure. 
 
 Me, I think they have it all wrong. After earning my high school diploma, I became one of only 3,000 people my age ( out of a total population of millions ) to continue my education. Next year, I will be one of only a handful to begin medical training. Someday, I will be one of the ship's busiest doctors, caring for a lazy generation that can barely stay sober enough to do their one real job–reproduce. I will do my job happily, enjoy my hobbies, love my future husband and my family. And one day, I will tell my children, the first generation to see our new planet, the wisdom I wish my generation had: 
 
 Life is a journey, much like our journey to the new world. Life is also the point of life, and not the means to some higher end. Whether you spend your life hurtling through space in a ship or hurtling through space on a rock, your life's meaning and value does n't change. It is a fantastic thing to be alive, so make the most of it, no matter where you end up.
