Translator: Gisela Giardino Reviewer: Sebastian Betti What if this that I take for granted today is gone by tomorrow? What if my career is no longer necessary by the time I get my degree? What if tomorrow I like girls?
What if I have to change to fit in a group or get a job? What if I don't fit in entirely? Scary.
Very scary. Sometimes fear turns into grief. Other times it needs to be talked over with friends, or even keep it undercover.
And sometimes it paralyses me. Fear comes from the reality I live in along with other teenagers. I think we are a generation that questions everything.
Thus, we want to act. We are the generation that embraces diversity, naturalizes homosexuality and that even protests against animal abuse through their diet. But while it seems that we are willing to face up to everything, it doesn't mean we are not afraid.
There are fears blown up by the instability brought about by global changes in the economy, politics, societies and even technology. I don't know what I will do tomorrow. We don't even know what we will do in a few hours.
Even less what will happen tomorrow. Maybe it's just another day. Or maybe it's one of those days when six new cellphone models come up, the world's stock markets plummet, there are three new social networks with the same puppy filters, or terrorist attacks happen in cities like Paris or Barcelona leaving dozens of deaths.
Today I'm standing here, with 19 years and all my life ahead and the only thing I'm sure of is that my name is Chiara. Although maybe tomorrow I'll call myself Pedro. I buy clothes and when I leave the store there's another fashion trend already.
Today I learn something and tomorrow it's not useful anymore. And that's when it hits me. When I realize how far I am from those who preceded me.
Because changes always happened but there is no applicable system today. There is no advice to follow, no recipe to put in practice, or formula to helps us achieve our goals. Or to at least help us face all that we have to face.
I don't know how I'm going to live tomorrow. And much less how I'm going to live from here to 10 years. I don't know if artificial intelligence is going to replace my career.
I don't know if we are going to buy houses or if we are going to live in smart tenements, or inside our electric cars. I don't even know if I'm going to have a family. It feels illogical to seek permanence in such a changing world.
And I don't know for certain what to do. I think the only thing that will help me move forward is to adapt to change. Adapt to it, embrace it and have the guts to project myself.
That's why when I think of my life project I no longer think of fixed landmarks to fulfill over time, but in three principles that I believe are going to remain stable even when everything else changes. First, be the best version of myself, always. Second, to own my present and immediate future.
For example, this week I want to get up early; as soon as the alarm goes off, to seize the day. Or, this month I want to pass my exams. And third, I will set flexible goals for the long term.
This is the hardest principle for me, because I have a slight tendency towards rigidity, or punctuality. Even when I am aware that things don't happen as I expect. That's why, for the time being, the best example of this principle it is to devote myself to study only what really motivates me.
Right now, I want to graduate within the right timeframe. And I think it's possible, because I'm in love with the career I chose. But if in the middle of the process I suffer a disenchantment I want to have the courage to change the course of events.
Because being afraid is fine, it happens to all of us, and to the teenagers of the next 10 years, will also happen. My children, if I decide have them, will also feel afraid. I think those hypothetical children I will have to give them everything I need today.
And that's no magic formulas or recipes that grew rotten. They will need love. And that this affection is a certainty for the construction of a future that is so uncertain.
A future they will build through trial and error and changes in their teenage years they will also have to embrace, just like I do today. Because that's what I need today. And I'm almost sure that tomorrow as well.
Or maybe not. Thank you.
