If I wasn't afraid of making sweeping generalizations, I'd say that my generation is made up of some pretty ambitious people.
I'm not afraid of making sweeping generalizations. Here goes nothing.
Gen Y -- you people are ruthless, and I'm talking about myself, too. As people who are constantly pushing ourselves to be better, greater, and more successful than generations past (and ourselves), we feel pressures from societal norms, mass media, and internal drive to constantly be more. Living in the information age, it's difficult to avoid constantly comparing ourselves and our lives to peers through the lens of Snapchat stories, Instagram filters, and social media updates.
Sitting at home on a Friday night can turn from peaceful to lonely as quick as you receive an inadvertent Snapchat from the party you weren't invited to. A working resumé turns from progressing to underperforming as soon as a LinkedIn updates is made, and an opportunity was given to someone else over you.
A discussion on this idea of measuring worth in comparison to others is well past due, but that's not exactly what I'm getting at here. I'll always be an advocate for the idea of discovering yourself first and learning to appreciate being an individual -- hell, even a little bit alone sometimes -- but I still believe something else to be more important.
"Go find yourself" is a cliché. I don't like clichés, and as noble as that idea is, part of living life is the pursuit of finding yourself. Discovering what's important to you is a large piece of what growing up's all about.
"Go find yourself" won't ever be anything more than a trendy Twitter bio, or at best, a tattoo someone gets in their indie phase.
Idea: stop being so selfish.
Stop idolizing yourself, your accomplishments, and how you're going to showcase your spectacular life to the world via social network and personal perception.
Stop thinking about yourself.
Stop looking for yourself.
Start looking for other people instead.
People are a lot more important than things. I think it's time we started thinking and living that way. Who knows? If you're lucky enough, you just might find something better than yourself: someone else who makes you a greater person.
All the best,
Gammon Fain
Editor-in-Chief, Odyssey at the University of Kentucky
