In pain...
Existential angst is a luxury only the well placed young can afford. You could have everything and yet harbour this vague feeling of emptiness. I know of so many children who are attending the country’s most premier educational and professional institutions but are thrashing about in a personal agony of indecision and uncertainty. They get up in the morning, not knowing which way they are headed. If only they could look out and stare into the thousand faces that are dying to get in.
Many young people today would seem to have it all and yet feel empty inside. They could be and are highly employable, they are mobile on wheels, technically wired, well travelled, with access to all kinds of knowledge and exposure and there is yet this sense of futility. Is this what they were destined to do? Was this the grand plan of nature for them? Is this their full and final passion in life, the thing they were meant to be?
No easy answers anywhere.
3 comments:
I don't miss those days one bit. At 20, I felt I needed to have all the answers and be so mature. It was very stressful - and for no reason!
Spending all your time preparing your future means not living in the present moment and enjoying the now.
Finding your passion can take time. And it should be fun.
I dont know if existential angst is only experienced by the privileged ones such as high achievers, but it could also apply to people who are struggling with themselves trying to find meaning and make sense of their existence. It could also mean looking back and wondering if one has made the right choices in life.
You are right Mala. Angst applies universally. It is a lifelong presence, to varying shades and degree. It is just that where I am, there is an acute sense of time and it seems a waste for angst to become paralyzing . There is something to be said for getting on with it!
Kartik, I read you ! Have been there. Yes.
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