Honestly, I have no clue what the hell I’m doing. I’m only a junior and I can already hear the impending gossipy side-chatter after graduation, “Oh wow, Anna had so much potential in high school but she wasted it all partying her life away in college…”
To be honest, that’s my biggest fear. Wasting potential.
Oh yeah, she could have been a great writer, but she never figured out how to be an actual human adult. I’m constantly spending my time in fear for and of my future, and I think I can honestly say—I’m not alone.
There’s a lot you can say about this generation. We’re lazy, we’re vain, and we are way to dependent on our iPhones. We have all heard the lectures about our obsession with technology, and having it ‘so easy’, and how horrible we are going to be as the future leaders of the world. However, what no one ever addresses, is how much pressure we are all under.
We are being thrown into a shark tank before we are taught how to swim; there’s always someone with more experience, more knowledge, or more talent.
The fear of failure is constantly shoved down our throats every time we are around people our own age who are more put together than normal. There’s this perpetual dark cloud looming over our heads, threatening to electrocute us if we don’t perfect our resumes and bust our asses for the most amazing internships. It’s like we are running on a treadmill and no matter how hard we push and sweat, we still aren’t going anywhere.
What happened to the times where it was okay for a twenty-something not to have their shit together? If you’re not doing something productive immediately after college graduation than somehow you’ve managed to prove to yourself, your family, your friends, and any on-lookers that we suck. Why can’t we have at least a 3-year grace period to make it work?
There isn’t any time to relax and enjoy the last of our youth because we are all so afraid that time will sneak up on us, and we won’t be ready for the big ‘A’ (adulthood). I don’t think anyone is ever ready to become a functioning member of ‘the real world,’ but it’s something that just happens before we are even ready.
What is with the obsession with immediate gratification after graduation? Struggle is all a part of the process. Struggle and failure are not synonymous. Even Tina Fey was once an unknown writer in Chicago, trying to make it doing what she loved.
I’m not saying young people shouldn’t strive for success and work at becoming who they want to be but all of this pressure is destructive and terrifying. It’s okay to have your shit together, but it’s also okay not to. We’ve still got time and rushing the process isn’t going to make it easier.
Part of the pressure is due to the fact that no one is willing to wait for these perfect lives. No one wants the in-between. Our society puts an emphasis on the beginning and the end, but fails to recognize the middle. Everyone wants to be a writer for SNL, but no one wants to write until their fingers cramp up to submit and get rejected hundreds of times before even getting a email back.
We need to take a step back and let loose because ‘the middle’ is the longest part of the story. It sucks to be in a weird state of adulthood limbo, but it is a necessary part of life. We can’t just fast-forward to the part of the movie where we land our dream job; we have to live through the whole thing.
The middle is our time to learn and do our own thing before we can be the person we want to be.
Success is success whether it happens at 24 years old or 75 years old. Some paths in life take us in different directions, but that shouldn’t automatically label us as losers. We should enjoy our final years of youth instead of trying to cut them short.
When else is it going to be acceptable to be out until 4AM on a Tuesday?
Get your stuff done, work as hard as you can, but give yourself a damn break. We are still kids, and I’ll be damned if kids aren’t allowed to have even a little bit of fun.