All the years that we spend in school, we are drilled with the thought of outsmarting others by scoring more marks. Nothing is enough. In the face of ruthlessness, students perform and give results. Some outshine others while some graple and face anxiety or even failure.
We are taught in an utterly poor manner how to manage our own emotions in school. There is no mechanism at all to deal with the social pressures that students go through. There’s no mechanism to understand the body image issues, the anger issues, anxieties, dysfunctional families and all sorts of changes that the young generation goes through. The most important aspect that we all have lost on is the understanding of UNCERTAINTY.
The 20s of an average adult is complexed by relationship issues, uncertainty of future career, confusion about changes happening to a person’s body, sexual orientation, and what not. But when I refelct back the 20 years of my life, they were spent churning data from textbooks and literally vomiting them out on paper the next morning. Value education too was meagre and not given much importance. Where did the resilience training of the mind go? Who will teach that?
More than half of the Indian population today is below 29 years of age. This means that more than 500 million people today have anxiety, depression at some or the other level. Most of us don’t even know what issues we go through. We suppose that it’s just a phase. We are told that we need to snap out of it. But suddenly when we are faced with the reality of temporary unemployment, failures in competitive exams and all hell breaks lose. We are our own trouble creators. We blame ourselves for not scoring here , not performing well there. We forget that we’re human beings. We’re bound to make mistakes. And we must FORGIVE ourselves.
This unforgiving and ruthless nature has not helped anyone. It only hardens the personality so much that an individual one fine day, breaks from within and realises that they gained nothing but helplessness. For some, it’s right in their early 20s when they get a job and can be happy for securing a job. But that isn’t enough to be happy in life. Social aspects of life like physical activities, relationships, family, etc. play an important role.
Therefore, today I realise that education must also include training of the mind. Training of the human mind to adapt to changes. The understanding is needed to be inculcated in children that it’s not necessary to have your dream job at 21, you may get it late but what’s important is that you never give up. This is what we need to be taught. The young generation worldwide, is burdened with student loans, expectations and a pile of books and PDFs, we need to realise the importance of mental health and not just go behind numbers. Numbers are a benchmark to judge someone’s merit but not someone’s character and struggles. Hence, I wish to respect everyone’s struggles and their lives.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.
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