What does IJBOL stand for? What about ROFL and HMU? These inquiries lingered as I embarked on my first sojourn to the States for summer school. As a Gen-Z participant just like my fellows, I felt a disconnect. American pop culture, an intricate fabric I yearned to interlace with, eluded me. This left me enmeshed in disappointment, self-consciousness, and solitude. Amid white peers finding hilarity in American humor that often eluded me, I felt alienated.

By the time I deciphered LOL - Laugh Out Loud, the verbal landscape had shifted, making me a bystander in this linguistic evolution. Shirley Wang's observations about this trend among American culture struck a chord. I saw myself as an elder inadvertently adrift in currents of culture I struggled to navigate. I also realized that my own culture had its own evolving shorthand, akin to American slang.

This retrospective insight birthed an unexpected pang of contrition, an awareness of the inadvertent harm we may inflict upon our parents and grandparents. As a Gen-Z, I summon forth a clarion call for Gen Z to exude empathy towards individuals who diverge from their linguistic milieu. Our global tapestry is not one of isolation but of interconnectedness. And within this interconnection lies the crucible of compassion, nurturing the very essence of love and understanding.