Katelyn Potyondy ’21
As I conclude my quest for knowledge in better understanding the different circumstances and perspectives of the youth of our society, I ask myself how this new insight can be utilized to help benefit my fellow Orange Lutheran High School community.
Through putting myself in others’ circumstances, I had a realization of the pressure and labels that society pushes on individuals. Whether this be in a sport, art, or school setting, each young individual’s identity becomes rooted in the value and success of one’s activities. Ultimately, this causes many to feel a sense of isolation and necessity to live up to standards in order to continue to uphold this burden of perfectionism. This mentality that success can only be achieved by being the most perfect and put together version of oneself causes a tainted society to be formed. Our society has normalized the idea of deceiving others through social media to create a facade that will fit the caliber of success. This idea of the perfect Pinterest life has corrupted all generations and specifically the youth as the standard of society has been adjusted to match the filtered version of oneself.
From knowing this knowledge our society needs to embrace the unfiltered version of oneself and measure the identity of an individual from their character and not their achievements. Every group of individuals that I studied I found a common theme in their struggles-the fear of failure. This not only drove the group of people forward in hopes of the potential of reaching success but also hindered people as they were bound to the harsh reality of the rejection and defeat of falling short of perfection. Let us create a generation that upholds one another and places more value on the journey rather than the success itself.
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Photo Credit: http://www.nytimes.com
