GENERATION Y- are we so sad?

Recently, someone close to me came to ask me if I was okay and if there was anything wrong with me or some pain I was masking particularly through my social media posts and what not, but my response was “is anyone okay?” Is anyone in our generation enjoying this uni, adult life thing at all? I didn’t know how to answer because it’s not like anything is wrong with me, I’m just going through life like any other 20 something year old and I’m open about my day to day struggles.

I went on to ask most people close to me if they were okay, I asked them if they were enjoying this uni life adult thing and you know what I derived? No one is having a good time, nothing is wrong with us except this revolving ball of earth called life. We’re a generation that is transferring and sharing all sorts of energies and trauma and it all seems as if everyone is going through the same things or having the same thoughts. Life is happening. Being a student, adult, in university, everything is clashing and it looks something like this:

So, from my conversations with people, I’ve made a list of some of the things ailing our generation and allow me to bleed as I get into detail about how some of these things affect me personally.

University

This is amongst the top stresses of everyone. University is hell, it’s not enjoyable and I’m not just talking about the academics, the social life, economic life, everything about university hurts and personally, having just bounced from one university to another I’m still trying to figure things out and find my way. Those in university are worried about their grades, their future, what to eat tomorrow, etc. those graduating are worried about what’s next? “Am I just going to walk out of here with a job?” The worries that come with uni are too much and everyone is just tired.

Being a woman

I always say this, being a woman is one of the most difficult things ever. Especially in world that hates women. Everyday you see a story about a missing woman, a raped woman, a murdered woman & you constantly ask yourself, “am I next?”. Nobody ever prepares you for the triggers you get when you see what other women are going through and what they have been subjected to just for being a woman. It’s hard. Being a woman is hard. Being a black woman? Let me not even begin.

Religion

Believe it or not everyone reaches a moment in their lives were religion start to collide with reality. You have so many questions but you’re not allowed to have questions, religion demands obedience in the hopes of all things happen for a reason but a part of you still wants to understand why some things are the way they are and why religion doesn’t favor some things or religion diminishes you in some way. It’s not easy.

Anxiety

I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that most of the stresses we go through are solely based of uncertainty and not knowing what’s next. In my blog post “generation Y- are we so anxious” I spoke about how amongst the youth, uncertainty of the future is one of the leading causes of stress. One keeps thinking about whether or not their going to make it , how their life will be in a year, two or even ten years from now. Uncertainty is the only thing that’s certain about life . It’s easy to just be like “live life for today don’t worry about tomorrow” but how do you do that when in everyday life you see examples of people you never want to turn into and those you wish to be? What’s the line between the two and how can I escape the former?

Marriage

Yes! Marriage stresses us out. I read a tweet once that read “I wonder how our parents are going to react when they realize we are serious about not wanting to get married.” This is a serious thing because if I’m being honest, there’s very few marriages that make me want to get married. I keep reading threads about how people got married to the people most convenient and didn’t end up with the love of their lives and just settled and I don’t want to settle. I’m sorry but I don’t want to live with someone I resent for the rest of my life because they were the most convenient.

So by now we’ve figured out that life is really stressful for the average 20 something year old and it’s mostly off things without a solution so how to deal? Honestly, I’ve adapted to many mechanisms this year particularly mental housecleaning which has helped me become more honest with myself and in synch with my feelings.

This year I also got to be open with my parents and let them know of the struggles I have on a daily basis, it’s not easy explaining to your parents that sometimes life just sucks but letting them know helps them understand that even though they raised us well and did the best they could with the understanding, knowledge and resources they had, life will still bring us down every now and then and developing a friendship were you can vent to your parents every once in a while actually helps!

So yeah, our generation has so many things to deal with and so much stresses at tender ages but maybe it’s molding our characters? Some of us are more open about our struggles than others but it doesn’t necessarily mean the one that is quiet isn’t going through the motions. Life is proving to be more difficult as time passes and the older we get but it’s safe to say we are living our best yet our worst lives simultaneously.

I didn’t want to repeat some of the stuff I’ve mentioned on other blog posts so if you can check out the highlighted links to make it all connect, it would be useful.