Why an entire generation feels exhausted from trying to become itself

Press enter or click to view image in full size

photo by Vitaly Gariev from Unsplash

When I was little, my grandmother often told me I would become a doctor.

She said it with a kind of quiet certainty, as if some lives were already decided before we had even begun living them.

I used to tell her I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to spend my days watching people suffer. I still remember the way she looked at me, somewhere between amusement and confusion, as if I were refusing something essential.

To her, being a doctor meant being useful.

As I grew older, I began hearing something different. I was told I needed to choose my path, to find my passion.

And slowly, the questions changed. At school, I was expected to have opinions and choose a direction that felt “aligned” with my personality, my desires, my natural abilities.

People were no longer asking me only what I wanted to do.…