Literary Digest LITERARY DIGEST MAY 2020 | Page 15

A
MILLENNIAL’s
STATE OF MIND
by
Harnoor Kaur
In times like the one we are faced with today, all
present generations, barring zero exceptions, are
being forced to deal with unprecedented confusion
and uncertainty. As millennials, we have been raised
with a set of conventions and have been taught time
and again the way of living. Our generation has also
seen the excessive rise of technology, and coupling it
with the increasing competitiveness in every field of
life, most of us have become slaves of capitalism: ours
brains are wired in a manner in which participating in
the rat race is often the only choice we are confronted
with, whether we choose to accept this reality or not.
Never in a thousand years did we think we would one
day be asked to systematically unlearn what has been
engrained into our brains our whole lives. This time is
especially scary for our millennial generation, as we are
the ones who are currently the youth, actively working
as professionals or acquiring erudition to work and
contribute to society's knowledge pool in the near
future. With children and elderly being more
susceptible to the novel Coronavirus, the future of
humanity along with economic reliance of most
families fall upon our generation.
Our generation has been feeling overwhelmed
with everything going on around us, and our anxiety
has been incited by the fear of not knowing what lies
ahead. We are witnessing job offers of soon-to-begraduates
being rescinded, along with professionals
being laid off or their paychecks receiving huge cuts.
This is a major cause of stress in current students as
well, who are unsure of future employment
opportunities or are doubting the return on their
education, at least in the near future. The students who
are studying abroad are even more worried, given the
high costs involved and uncertainty as to when they will
get to go back, if at all, and if they will get to work in
those countries. This tension has been heighted as the
American President Donald Trump announced the
temporary suspension of immigration in the United
States recently. Apart from this, the financial status of
most families has worsened, leading to most students
reassessing the prospects of graduate school and
postdoctoral studies, and either choosing to defer
higher education, or to drop the idea altogether in this
dire time where families need to earn and save as much
as they possibly can. Apart from the financial burden
and job stress that most of us are witnessing, the process
of having to unlearn our routine is daunting, to say the
least. This process has been further burdened by peer
pressure. Social media is filled with people being
proactive and creative, and one peak at LinkedIn can
make you feel as if you were the most unproductive
person in this lockdown. These platforms highlight
people who are doing exceptional things with their
time, and somehow give off the impression that
everyone is doing much more than you are. And indeed,
a lot of people start following suit, except they do it
under immense pressure. Little do we realize that we are
again part of the same rat race, despite being given a
golden opportunity to step out of it and rewrite the
rules.
There are, however, a couple of silver linings in
all of this, which most of us realize. Despite this bedlam
of utter chaos, we finally get time to press pause, take a
step back, and just breathe for once. We now have the
time to do things that we have always wanted to do but
never got the time to, be it learning a new language,
picking up books and getting back into the habit of
reading, painting, dancing, or even just taking time off
to relax and finish all those Netflix series you had lined
up.
We are all also getting to spend quality time
with our families, which is a blessing in itself especially
in today's time, wherein we need our loved ones to keep
us sane and happy. With social distancing being
speculated to become the 'new normal', we are
gradually accepting this reality and are embracing
technology to further rekindle and strengthen our
relationships with our friends and relatives, thus
bringing us closer despite the distance. We are also
witnessing that there is no barrier to learning in today's
age, and a lot of us are actively gaining more knowledge
about disciplines that we never got to learn. People are
also engaging in healthy and therapeutic activities such
as cooking and creating a workout routine. Most
importantly, the anxiety and angst amidst most of us in
this lockdown has shown us how dependent we are on
others, and how little we know ourselves.
Hence, more and more of us are taking out time
to simply introspect and learn more about ourselves
and our deepest insecurities, which helps us come to
terms with our true inner self, a revelation which is
unparalleled. As we continue to reflect, we are in a
better state to manage our emotional and mental
health, and develop a newfound appreciation for life.
Even though none of us knows what lies ahead for us,
our generation understands that we are all in this
together. Therefore, despite the uncertainty that
surrounds us, I can see my peers embracing positivity
and looking at the silver linings, and because of that I'm
proud that I belong to this generation now more than
ever.
The writer is an undergraduate student majoring in
Economics at Hindu College, University of Delhi