My View of Life

It is rather a little early for me to have a deep perception of life at a mere 20 years of living. Nevertheless, I would like to share my thoughts.

From a young age, I lived freely, not giving a care to the world as I focused on entertainment and myself; however, as I grew older, life has become a fearful existence. I’m not suicidal but it's not uncommon to hear stories from teenagers who had thoughts about suicide. The expectations that are placed upon us to act mature, do well in school, and function like a puppet of society or a cog of a machine. Go to college, get a degree, and work. Some folks may say you don't need to go to college and while I agree with that, some folks do not have or haven't found a talent/skill they can put to use. When we do become responsible adults, we take our first steps into the professional world yet it can crumble within seconds. I found it strange when I heard of a surgeon fooling around during an operation. You spent all that time working hard to get there only to throw it all away. How about the war veterans who became homeless? Shocking! Disappointing! They defended our homeland and quelled threats but we failed to help them.

I read news articles and watch the news quite often and as you might expect from the onslaught of terrible news, I’ve become rather pessimistic with an unfavorable view towards people. Society has become sensitive, and brittle. College students fear speaking their true feelings out of fear of ostracism and cancel culture. Not to mention men have nowhere to speak their minds because we are expected to suck it up and deal with it.

The more recent controversies with gun control and abortion are something I won’t delve into but politics are always a mess. However, it is great that we have the freedom of speech which allows us to have these meaningful debates. I used to be quite competitive but it led to toxic and rebellious behavior, leading me to become a lot more passive. I grew tired of it, tired of speaking because what good will it do? Everyone thinks of me as that one kid who always laughs and never gets angry when really, it’s merely one of many faces. We have our public faces and private faces. We shift our actions to align with the interest of others to fit in. However, if there is one group of people I refuse to align myself with, it's those with an obsession with social media.

The generation I was born in is called snowflakes. It’s already seen to be a failure and I’ve witnessed our faults. We are born into an age of technology developing into this toxic culture of attention. When I was in elementary school, I was the only kid without a smartphone but kids were already talking about trends and the likes. Hell, one little girl at a mere 10 years of age experienced cyberbullying by her own two “best friends” and I didn’t know what that was until the teacher explained it. She was gone for weeks suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. I don’t know what happened to her now but I pray she’s doing better. I met one of the perpetrators of the cyberbullying attack in high school and I confronted her about it. She would blame the other person for starting it but who knows. There are also those who become suicidal because they look a certain way or do not get the attention they wanted.

Now let's look at the positives. For me, music and writing are my saving grace. I'm not one for romantic relationships but I do enjoy watching from afar or more specifically a third person's viewpoint. Something about watching other people being happy is what makes me more optimistic. I do like comedy shows, but it's a bit sad that some people go to a comedy show only to get offended when it's a joke albeit I don't know how often that happens. If I were to summarise myself, I am a people-watcher. It's more enjoyable to be part of the audience than the one in the spotlight.

This is my first article and sort of my first time ever speaking about this sort of topic. While short, it was a breath reliever. I felt like I got something off my chest. It is only through writing that I can feel free for once.