My mother, who still calls me wondering why I won't stop printing things like “I'd be better off working in a Saigon whore house” in our school newspaper, sent me an article a few weeks back about the rise of entitlement in young adults. In her ceaseless effort to turn me into a decent person, she occasionally does this kind of thing, and it always makes me stop throwing baby seals through my wood-chipper long enough to reflect on what she's trying to get through to me.

The article cited several credible sources and psychological studies that claimed the average young adult is turning into quite the scumbag. The number of college students diagnosed with secondary narcissism is steadily increasing. Dean's offices are jammed with students claiming they've been slighted or dealt with unfairly in their class. My strict no-research policy for these articles prevents me from throwing any numbers at you, but I don't really think you need those to be convinced. Just ask your physics teacher how many kids jam his office at the end of the semester claiming they deserve a better grade.

It's especially bad here. Since I already have a history of stereotyping essentially every socio-economic group on this 90210 of a campus, I might as well keep it up; Vanderbilt, you whine too much. You have a nasty habit of thinking the world owes you something when, in fact, it doesn't owe you a damn thing.

A good part of it is simply the world in which we live. Ours is a place of almost limitless convenience, casual relationships and instant gratification. We are accustomed to having to put minimal effort into the things we want and having them show up conveniently on our doorstep 3-5 business days later. All this has made our modern America the greatest place in the world to live, but it is beginning to come at a price: This sense of entitlement is spilling over into other aspects of our lives.

You can't expect to obtain something without doing the required work to earn it. This concept seems to be falling out of favor amongst our generation. Everyone gripes about the teacher or class being stupid when they bomb their paper. We need drugs to coerce us to stay in the library for more than an hour. You whine about the fact that that girl last night wouldn't come back to your place, even after you danced for, like, at least 20 minutes. In all of these cases, there is a common bottom line: You didn't earn it.

Don't think I'm excluding myself from all of this. We all fall into the trap of victimization. It's so much easier to sell it to yourself when you believe it is not your fault. The fact that we failed to earn something isn't the problem. The problem occurs when we look outside of ourselves for something to lay the blame on.

Next week, try to re-examine what it is that you want and what you need to do to make your desire a reality. Just understanding what you need to do to accomplish your goals is at least a step in the right direction. But if this goal is something you truly want, you must realize it's not just going to come to you. You have to work to achieve your goal, and take pride in the fact that the journey there was what you take the most pride in.