At a recent eTown show in Boulder it was evident that I may have been a little too quick to judge the next generation. It’s easy to look at young people walking down the street with their headphones, texting, unaware that they are about to crash into me and get the idea that they are completely oblivious to the world’s problems. It’s easy to see them texting while driving and get the idea that they are just a little self-absorbed.

Every spring, like most Denver public relations firms, I get a barrage of emails from people looking for internships or jobs. Some are recent college grads and some are still in school. Many of them blast out a generic cover letter addressed to some impersonal target like Dear Hiring Manager, accompanied by a typo filled resume with no relevant experience for the position they are seeking. They want to move to Denver and they need a job. They are dying to work for a firm like mine but it’s obvious from their email that they just inserted Pushkin PR at that point in the sentence where they deleted the name of the last firm they sent the very same email. C’mon man! A little homework would be nice.

So the eTown show the other night was refreshing. Inspirational even. As eTown’s host, Nick Forester told the audience, maybe you came here tonight a little stressed out, a little discouraged, a little worried about what’s going on in the world today. Well we can relax now, because the kids are all right.  The show featured the Infamous Stringdusters and Zak Heckendorf, amazingly talented young musicians with some serious chops playing innovative, creative, original acoustic music with conviction, passion and a social consciousness that is as much a part of their music and the flurry of notes they were playing.

On the same show, Nick also interviewed Zak Podmore and Will Stauffer-Norris, two recent Colorado College grads who spent four months paddling down the entire length of the Colorado River to document the dire situation facing millions of people in seven states if we don’t do something to reverse the major damage our towns and cities are doing to the river. Their passion and conviction inspired the audience as well as the musicians they shared the stage with.

At the end of the show I told Nick that he’s right. I felt bad when I walked in the door but now I feel much better. Everyone in the next generation is not shallow and oblivious, just the ones sending me their resumes. There is hope for the future. We’re okay. We can take a deep breath and relax. The kids are all right.