The basic fact of life that everyone comes to terms with sooner or later is that being an adult it hard. We all have our own issues and we are all consumed by money or love or working or pursuing an education or all of the above. Hardship is the foundation on which we build ourselves to gauge how far we’ve come or need to go. But the saddest part about all of this is that when we are consumed by our own evils, we construct a bubble around our minds, barring any entry from anything that isn’t about our greatest worries. I am 19 years old. I am in a sorority, I go to classes, I work, all while trying to find myself. I am in a bubble. And completely ashamed of it.
Think about a stereotypical college student: Someone usually between the ages of 18-22, in pursuit of a degree that may or may not land them a job one day. Some are more involved than others, but we find common ground on the basis that we are all sharing somewhat of the same fundamental experience. The reality of college is that it has become that training wheels of adulthood. We are a clusterf**k of bodies bumping into each other, with no clue about how to do anything. We are held to that standard of being grownups, with responsibilities and some bills to pay, but deep down we have no idea what we are even doing.
The bubble comes into play specifically for those of us in college in this respect: we have absolutely no concept of the outside world unless it has to do with school, pursuing a guy or girl, or our cell phones.
We are absolutely ADDICTED to our cell phones. One would think that we would use this advanced technology to further educate ourselves about important issues like what’s going on in the world and what issues the current political candidates, but we don’t. Do you want to know what I do on my cell phone? Cry over the fact that the guy I like isn’t texting me back or making sure that my Instagram photo got enough likes on it for me to keep it up. Tell me that that isn’t messed up.
I have no idea what it is like to go through hardship. I volunteer through my sorority and an organization that supports funding for childhood cancer research, but I have no idea how it feels to personally struggle. In my bubble, the hardest thing I have to deal with is sleeping through an alarm and being late to class or forgetting my phone charger in my room.
Our generation is so wrapped up in posting photos rather than being present in the actual moment. We go to a concert and our cells phones are up instead of our hands. We update our Snapchat stories so everyone can live vicariously through us as if all of the people who matter aren’t with you to begin with.
It’s a distorted vision we all have of our world. All we care about is ourselves and how we look to other people. And yes, while you should always put yourself first, sometimes our bubble gets in the way of truly seeing what others are going through. The only real solution lies within popping this metaphorical bubble blinding us from seeing what truly matters in life and finally learning to understand that this world is broader than college and how we look on social media.
