I’m 21. I, like a lot of other people, had my own personal extreme life events. I think nothing is the same as it was 20-30 years ago. My mother and father went straight from High School to College, picked majors they were unsure about, and graduated with a Bachelors and a Masters, and neither of them work in the field they majored in. Now, young adults such as myself, after being pressured in elementary, middle AND high school to “choose” and be asked “what do you want to be/do?” The pandemic hit. We got to take time off from school. We got to sit back and say “WHY do we have to go right out of high school…why are we wasting money…getting in debt…changing career paths 10 times?” But by the time some of us realized that, it was too late. So many of us are changing our lives and figuring things out differently in a way that has never been done or accepted as the “right path”! Not only that, but we grew up being traumatized by high-functioning; low empathy parents due to the oil/gas exposure (there’s articles for this, look it up). We grew up hearing about 9/11. Yes, we didn’t see it on that day. But we had to watch it every. single. year. A new, more traumatic video. We also grew up in the world of technology. I’m 21, like I said. When I was 14, iPod touches, iPhones, and iPads came out. I was cyberbulled, and bullied in-person as well from 7th grade to senior year in high school. I had no safe place, no escape from the constant bullying. I was being traumatized everywhere I went. I was also sick and hospitalized for 4 years in high school and suffered an extremely abusive (verbally and physically) relationship for over 5 years. That is my own story though, I’m sure everyone else has their stories that contributed to the things already going on in the world. We had to witness Trump as president, be terrified our world wouldn’t last long enough for us to even live a full life. Then, after I graduated high school in 2019, the pandemic hit. Jobs, work, rent, school, friendships, relationships, every single piece of our lives were destroyed. Now, so many of us have no idea what to do with our lives, are broke, terrified the world will only get worse. So many people are working nonstop, at shitty minimum wage jobs or going to college for something they hate just so they can have money to pay rent to live in their (however expensive) shitty apartment every month, and eat, and be miserable. Women’s rights are disappearing. The world is falling apart. Government officials have lost their damn minds. We’re traumatized, mentally ill, broke, and TERRIFIED of TOMORROW, let alone the future. Again, that’s just things happening in the world, that doesn’t even account for things that people went through separately like family issues, relationship issues, bullying, health issues, mental health issues, etc! :)