My Dad always told me that I could be anything I wanted, as long as I made an honest living. I took these words to heart as I grew up, pushing forward to become the best I could be. I worked hard to fill out college applications to the fullest whilst also going to school, taking piano lessons, cheering football games, acting in the school musical, and keeping up with chores at home. I wore dresses and pantyhose with blazers and impersonated a much older, more put together person as I met with recruiters and professors and alumni and scholarship founders and whoever would listen to my pleas.

I took three whole years of a teaching program at my college, fighting against a system that didn't think I would be an adequate teacher. I stayed up doing work until the night turned into the morning, guzzling coffee and rubbing my bloodshot eyes as I begged them to stay open until the end of the morning's lecture. I was in plays and societies and attended convocations and churches, all with a smile plastered on my face as I pushed on and on.

I knew what society expected of me. I needed to be smart, successful, charming, athletically fit, socially engaged, politically informed, fashionable, well-rested, prepared for anything, and smiling.

And I tried. My God, I tried. But one night, as I watched the time switch from Tuesday to Wednesday, surrounded by papers and due dates in a room full of mess with dirty laundry and an empty stomach, I snapped. Tears poured down my face as I realized that this was an unobtainable dream. I cried.

The young adults of today are stressed. We are pushed to be the best we can be, and then some. This is a great thought, but it isn't completely obtainable. There is no way to balance a social life, good grades, mental, physical, and emotional health, and still look to the future with complete positivity and self-assurance.

This generation needs a break. A mental vacation, if you will. We wonder why so many of our young people are plagued with sad faces and bags under their eyes, but we don't stop to look at what they are doing. With the plague of helicopter parenting on today's teens and young adults, mixed with an onslaught of force-fed social stigmas and rigid testing that does not even test real content knowledge. There is a dire need for a reboot of the way we raise our young people. Instead of creating competitive angry machines that feel the need to constantly be in a relationship and never sleep, we should try raising humans. Real people who smile and sit outside to enjoy the sunshine every now and then. People who remember each other's birthdays without a Facebook reminder and who laugh when it suddenly starts to rain, instead of cursing it for ruining their work schedule.

Let them be people again. Don't push so hard for perfection, just ask for their best. Support their ideas and dreams, but don't place the weight of the world on their shoulders. Because not being good enough, not being "successful" in the eyes of the world, is truly the reason that this generation cries.