The Kids Aren’t Alright, Neither is the Environment

Salma Ahmed

Spotlight Editor

My Instagram explore page has become home to pictures with hundreds of thousands of likes from people making fun of self-hatred, self-destructive coping mechanisms and unhealthy behaviour.

Between their late teens and early 20s, you’d think young people would be living their best years; instead, they are dressed in their widest smiles to disguise their state of hopelessness.

Their dark humour has become their way of coping with all of the madness that surrounds them.

I had the same conversation with several friends, trying to pinpoint our purpose. They are all in search of this thing that makes their lives feel meaningful, whether that be a job, a significant other, an adventure or giving back.

Another late night spent browsing through Twitter had me stumble upon yet another viral tweet. This one said something along the lines of “I feel like if I am not successful by 25 someone will come and shoot me”.

The amount of likes, retweets and replies that agreed with the statement was extremely concerning.

The replies were a variation of “I agree,” which brought me so much joy due to purely selfish reasons. I had always felt like I am running out of time, from the second I hit my late teens and became aware of how little impact I actually have in the world.

We grow up seeing people our age and younger accomplish beyond great things while we just sit there, belittling what we were able to achieve because they pale in comparison.

They put up with being used and abused for the sake of love. They put up with toxic relationships for the sake of not being alone. And they put up with overworking themselves for the sake of success, but what they are not willing to put up with is mother earth slowly decaying.

Despite the many issues millennials suffer from, they are not willing to give up on the environment and on the bigger picture.

They are taking a stand against a lot of what has been wrong for decades, plastic pollution, corruption and discrimination within its variations.

They are breaking decades-old cycles in order to make a change and to fix what previous generations have destroyed.

We may suffer from expecting too much of ourselves to be able to pause for a moment and appreciate the great work each of us does on a daily basis.

But that doesn’t stop us from fighting for a better and brighter future.

Which is why despite all our hang-ups, expect more and more youth become more active and aggressive about environmental issues in the days to come.