Every spring, the Clarion Rotary sponsors a $500 scholarship for a graduating senior. All aspects of the application are anonymous, including a required essay. Each applicant writes a one-page essay with the same topic: “The greatest challenge facing my generation is…”
According to Rotary members who assessed the applications, never before have they had three essays that were so much on the same topic. They were struck by how introspective and powerful the essays were and wanted to share them with others. The students who wrote the essays gave permission for them to be published here.
Raven Kinnetz’s essay
Raven went on to be awarded with the Rotary’s scholarship.
The greatest challenge facing my generation is acceptance, feeling worthy, and general mental health. Of course, issues like Covid-19 and world sustainability are huge challenges as well, but I think the most basic, underlying challenge is mental health. Every day, I see people in my school and community struggle to feel happy with their life. In the world, there is so much negativity bringing people down and it destroys peoples' confidence and well-being. I know that these past couple of years have worsened my generation's health because of all the isolation and stress. With Covid-19, teenagers and adults have had to be cooped up in their homes and surrounded by only family. This has further split the connection with others that is vital for peoples' mental stability. Those who already chose to spend time alone may think that nothing has changed for them, but this type of alone time has been different. Thanks to technology, individuals can still connect, but the online interaction is not the same as face-to-face interaction. Seeing those who care about others is what everyone needs because of the support it offers.
No one should feel like it is not worth living or that they are alone. It breaks my heart to think about all the people who struggle to get out of bed because they are dreading the day ahead of them. Thankfully, there are more medications that have been created to help those in need, but I wish the world were a place where no one felt that low in the first place.
Acceptance is also a subcategory issue in mental health. In the current world, it is hard to feel like enough with competition in the workforce and other places. It can be discouraging to not be a part of the group or chosen. Due to this, many feel unworthy or assume something is wrong with them, and unfortunately, it sometimes spirals into a deep depression.
In order to fix this challenge of my generation, the world needs to first off recognize what it is doing to its people. Then everyone needs to focus on having a positive impact on those around them by spreading kindness. At our school, our student council has tried to do its part by spreading awareness about the declining mental health of our generation through posters. The change will be gradual, but it is possible to strengthen everyone's mental health.
Angel Carillo’s essay
After living for 18 years of my life, I know the difference between my generation and the older generation. The main difference between the two generations is the amount of technology used in today's modern time. Now technology has created social media, which seriously negatively influences my generation. There are hundreds of social media apps out there in the world, but the well-known of this generation are Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. The main insult of social media is the amount of damage it can cause to communicate with others outside their phones. I have seen many of my classmates ignore others talking to them while focusing on social media. This generation has been damaged by our lack of communication and the level of social media we use every day.
Now, because of social media, we text others on our phones rather than communicate with others outside the giant world we know as Earth, and also have too much unneeded conflict on the internet itself. It's almost impossible to have your own opinion on social media without any backlash about the topic itself since social media gives people the power to bully others inside the internet. Since social media, there has been a rise of cases of depression towards younger adults because of the amount of criticism they gain for one bad photo or text. Social media has given my generation a power that could cause more problems in the future than helping others in need. This also causes large problems for others that care for people's opinions, which can break their self-confidence towards school or life in general. My generation needs to find a way to fix social media as it is, or it can cause more damage to the later generations.
Alaina Friesleben’s essay
My generation lives in the digital age. Everything is done through a screen, from completing homework assignments, talking to friends, even filling out this scholarship is being done on a computer, and it can help things to be done more efficiently. However, there is a darker side to living in the digital age and it is one that is plaguing my generation. The greatest challenge facing my generation is that we spend too much time submersed in some form of digital media, and it causes damaging psychological effects.
Almost everyone my age has a smartphone, and I would argue that almost everyone has some form of social media. Teens spend an absurd amount of time on social media platforms including Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Spending so much time on these apps is taking away so much of our time that we could be using to learn important life skills or physically be around our friends rather than message them on social media. For example, someone may see a video of something cool, send it to their friend and say, "We should do this sometime," and then continue scrolling through and never actually do the activity.
Excess time on social media can also lead to self-esteem issues. On social media, everybody posts when they look their best and try to portray themselves as best as they can. People can even photoshop their images to make them look a certain way. When people in my generation constantly see this as they scroll, it can create negative thoughts about themselves and make them question their own worth and appearance. Social media has created an idealized lifestyle that few can achieve, and it is very damaging to my generation, which is why I think excessive time on social media is the greatest challenge facing my generation.
