Where’s the finish line? As I’ve gone throughout college, this question lingers in my mind more and more. These days, I am not alone in this notion. After I saw the documentary, Race to Nowhere, which focused on the tactics society has adopted to set our children on the path to success, it really set me on my quest to discover where this pressure-cooker race is truly bringing millennial and following generations. We have been put on the brink by over-scheduling, over-testing, and the relentless pressure to achieve.

The road that is traveled by students in grade school and high school leave uninspired and unprepared college students. We know how to memorize information for a test, only to be forgotten the moment the exam is finished. We pride ourselves on juggling mounds of homework in front of us, only finished after the hours of extracurricular activities are done, which can only happen once our course classes are finished for the day. Society gleams and reams over the test scores that reveal how “educated” or “uneducated” our students are, but what about passion, acceptance of failure as a part of life, and striving to uncover what really ignites and sparks young people?

I go through days like a zombie, forcing myself to keep everything together, because that is what it takes to “make it.” More disturbingly, I see and hear my peers dragging themselves right beside me, wondering why we are doing this to ourselves, simply praying that all of this darkness is worth it. We pop a pill to get the A, pull all-nighters to keep up with the work, and place our masks on to hide the imperfections and struggles lurking on our faces. At the end of the day, though, I wonder what just happened, and often cry out of frustration that I have to do it all over the next day.

Society has defined a successful student as one that is involved in their school, taking the hard courses, maintaining a 4.0, and looking completely sane doing it. It is not this way. We as students are sacrificing everything, desperately trying to fit into this label. How are we supposed to be this “successful student,” and know what we want to do for the rest of our lives if we don’t even know whether or not we enjoy what we’re studying or if it is even worth it? I sit here typing and struggle to admit that I do not often times know what I’m doing. I find myself relying on the saying, “fake it ’till you make it,” and break down more than I probably should, frustrated that I cannot keep up with the grind the way I see others around me can. But, I am not alone. YOU are not alone.

As I walk around my campus, I see and hear the silent epidemic of distress and am deafened by its screams. Why do I, a 20-year-old student with the world at my hands, feel such a depleting emptiness? Better yet, why is my feeling the normalized trend these days? From the very beginning, our society has pushed my generation harder and further, ignoring any repercussions that follow it. Adderall abuse is through the roof, sleep deprivation has made its stay, and mental and physical health have gone out the window at the third bend around the corner. How do we fix this? When will happiness become a goal in the syllabus right next to “Chapters 1-20?” The millennial generation has been labeled as the “entitled generation,” but we are far more than that. We are burnt out, confused, and unhappy, just trying to drag ourselves along on this “Race to Nowhere.”