A Rant Dedicated To Young People, Who Think Their Life Sucks
This Is Something That Needs To Be Said
Speaking on behalf of myself, my family, my friends, 99% of people I know and 99% of the people on Medium: We have no problems.
When I was in high school, there were a few people whose “life would be over” if they didn’t get into medical school.
It wasn’t.
One settled for something else. The other persevered for 5 years until he got in.
When I was getting my Bachelor’s, there were a few people who “absolutely needed an A” in that class to get into that program.
They didn’t.
Some didn’t get in, even with good grades. Some did, regardless of their GPA.
While I’m getting my Master’s, my friends are freaking out left and right.
“I can’t find a job that pays enough.”
“I’m not sure this is what I wanna do.”
“I don’t wanna do another internship.”
“I’m overwhelmed. This is all too much.”
“Maybe I’m depressed.”
“I’ll never find a job.”
Mind you, these are all people with degrees from prestigious colleges in Germany.
Sometimes, I just want to shake them all and say:
What the HELL are you talking about? Those aren’t real problems!
You just graduated college, what do you expect? To be the CEO of Goldman freaking Sachs?
Take any job, find out by learning, take the shitty pay, eat dirt, do a little less, take it slow, stop complaining and for Pete’s sake, stop throwing money at a shrink who only tells you what you want to hear.
My grandparents lived through a world war and they do just fine. They don’t need a marriage counselor or a therapist or a cheerleading team to get them to do stuff and to fix things when they go wrong.
They have something young people are terribly lacking these days:
Every day at school I see the cleaning lady. If I had to start over at zero, I would be more than happy to go out and get a job like hers.
I would be freakin’ thrilled.
You know why? Because it comes with the privilege of living in a place where I don’t have to worry about where I sleep, what I eat and how I’ll make it home safely.
Most people take that for granted and then sabotage themselves by making up stupid problems in their own mind.
If you live in a place like that, make sure you remember it.
Here’s the audio version of this post:
If this rant shook you up, press the heart 💚 to shake someone else.
I write more here. This was first published at www.quora.com.
