This won't be an easy feeling, easy read, type of article. If you want a light hearted article, go ahead and find one. I am writing about the college student view on what's going on.
It's mid-March in 2020, and history is writing itself. Many people are panicking, creating more anxiety within this hectic society. On one half, we have people who are completely panicking and buying all of the toilet paper and hand sanitizer; the wheels of their shopping cart sag under the weight, while the rest of us are just trying to endure through this. We are having to establish what is essential in our lives. We've all heard about essential workers, the tired underpaid minimum workers, waiting for the clock to run out. Checking out the last "Karen" who is in her 30s talking about how proud she is to get the last package of something. Just to see that the next person in line is older, and carrying very few items, because that's all they can find. We have people actively working and seeking to help and find help, but the forgotten ones in this crazy situation are the middle grounders.
We are being destroyed, yet actively seeking to fix our society. Us in the middle are just trying to hold on to the resemblance of our day to day lives. Trying to seek our goals, just trying to live. We are not the ones risking it all to Spring Break on a beach, the ones panic buying all of the groceries, or getting worked up by how whatever generations is, once again, screwing up. Our collective anxiety rests in silence.
We are told this is something that will be talked about in history books, but what will those books say. Will it say that it tore our society down only to make us stronger? Who will write it? We all know that the winners of wars write the history books, but who will "win" in this time period? I'm not here to answer these questions, just to raise them. It is something that is on all of our minds. So what do I even do? Do I continue working my minimum wage job, hoping people won't come in sick? I have to, I have to pay for rent. One question down, a million more to go. Do these answers even matter to me? What matters, what even matters at this point?
It's time to self reflect, and look at what's important in our lives. In college, we work on goals all the time- what we're planning on doing in the next 5,10, 20 years. But I've never had the heart of telling them that I see nothing. I know my strengths, and I am working towards a career path that will accomplish all of them. But I don't see my future, I can't, no matter how many essays I try to write about it.
How will this change our norm? How will we change? Are we finally going to open our eyes, or let others write our history?
