You May Not Change the World. And That’s Okay
As a small child the everyone sees so much potential in you. People see babies and think of them as the new generation — how they are the future of this world and how every single one of them has the potential to become the next Bill Gates, Obama, Oprah, big celebrity, or innovative creator that puts out something that is life changing. All these young kids have this potential to become the next doctor to save a life or lawyer to right the wrongs of injustice. It’s hard to come to terms that once your future becomes a little clearer- and you grow older that you may not fulfill those shoes.
The drive is there with kids nowadays to one day become one of those people. Tragedy is much more visible and injustice is more transparent. You feel helpless and you tell yourself you want to change it. You want to do something. There are so many resources now that allows them to be successful, to research and let the kids figure out themselves how they want to change the world.
The flip side of this is the fragility of our human mind. We were never designed to evolve alongside with this technology. So as our phones got faster and we took in more information about the world out there… some of our brains could not handle the overwhelm. Things were different 10 years ago- even only 5 years ago when Facebook was starting out and there were maybe 3 main news sources. The exponential growth of media and technology has induced a new crisis — a mental health one.
A lot of us, myself included, are no longer trying to save the world. We hope the world will be a good place and we want to contribute and do our part— but the realization that we do not have to do “big things” is one that many of us have come to terms with.
Our priority — our mental health. Our happiness.
For example, when you live with anxiety and instilled in you is this constant fear that something may go wrong or that people despise you for any reason…. That emotional distress rises above all else and consumes you.
How can you change the world when you can’t even make yourself whole.
It comes to a point when you realize you don’t have the capacity to change the world, but instead you want to live for yourself and to move forward in life content with who you are as a person. Because the pressure and expectation to fix this world that seems so fractured is crushing, and alongside with our internal struggles it is difficult to emotionally persevere when we are thrown into this world that drowns us in negative thoughts and information.
So yeah, maybe I won’t change the world. But that’s okay. I can still try to make it a good place for the people around me.
