Olivia Hille headshot
For lack of better words, our generation’s lives have coincided with tragedy and loss every step of the way, and it has desensitized us. But we don’t wallow in pity for this; we normalize it.
The world spinning out of control around us is all we’ve known. Our reality is addressing what’s happening around the world, all while also not letting it affect us too much so we can still function and do the things we are supposed to do. This balance, while precarious, is not going to aid those who hold roles of power in our government like they think it will.
Frankly, our lives feel like some sort of messed up social experiment of “How much can these people under the age of 30 take?” There’s a feeling that by not solving issues at hand, like the pandemic, but rather prolonging it will end up providing more support for the current political order at hand. We’re told things are just the way they are, and there’s no changing that.
I raise the point that Generation Z has been battling since day one, and we’re well beyond our years in understanding the discombobulated political arena set before us. With our education and background of the past 20 years in American history, I argue we are the most qualified to create an improved political order which does not simply focus on economic gain.
The majority — if not all — of our college experiences have been under the umbrella of COVID-19 restrictions. We are told to protect each other while also sitting in a room of 60 other students. Juggling the pressure of college is already a feat, but to simultaneously participate in a society that does not value our well-being as much as making money is extremely demoralizing. As a political science major, to watch our government’s overall disinterest in its citizens’ health, especially the younger generations who they will soon be reliant upon, is really baffling.
While it isn’t impossible to socialize under these conditions, it is difficult to make lasting impressions or friendships with people in the same way and on the same level as before the pandemic started. The lives the last generation lived — where your college friends are your lifelong ones and you make memories to last a lifetime — is no longer our reality. With the incredibly necessary use of masks, there is a lack of interconnectedness following every interaction with our classmates as well as our professors. Ultimately, the pandemic and government inaction has stolen any sort of youth we had left.
We are not meant to process so many horrible things all at once, especially considering how we have lost well over 20,000 North Carolinians to COVID-19 in the past two years, and it is not letting up. We are expected to move about life, perform at our peak, look to our future, be competitive and act like everything is OK.
Our future feels as if it is in flux. We don’t know what the rest of this pandemic will bring, how many more loved ones we will lose and we are being told this is normal. We are supposed to continue getting good grades, apply ourselves, get decent jobs and just move on.
Our generation has been desensitized to so many things while simultaneously advocating and fighting for our rights and our livelihood. NC State has made it accessible to become more in touch with ourselves, with our communities and with our world through social media and activism like never before. I truly have come to appreciate the outspokenness and care that NC State administration has taken up during this time. However, no amount of support from our educational institution is going to fix the problem at hand.
The education NC State has armed us with and the expansive experiences we’ve had makes us wiser well beyond our years. When we are able to represent ourselves and be in roles of power, the politics and bureaucratic nonsense of the 20th century will be done away as our generation comes into the fold.