The term ‘young adult’ is self-explanatory; an adult who is still young. The years of your life when one steps out into the world is full of confusion. One meets new people, learns to take responsibilities and gains independence; or one likes to think so. Just being out of home and learning to navigate life puts one into a series of confusions that are never-ending. But the real dilemma arises when one has to make way for supervision while still being told that they are now an adult and are on their own. For most, it becomes difficult to accept the supervision placed upon them, most commonly by a college or a university. I have experienced this feeling of rebellion around me that most college students display. I am also a victim of what I call the – “I know everything” syndrome. This rebellion, I believe at times results in a tug-of-war between the supervising authorities in college and the newly grown children. The inspiration, in most cases, comes from the protests and rallies happening all around the country and displayed abundantly by the media. For the mentors this display of rebellion is not a very concerning factor, because the students are children and children often throw tantrums. The whole process is unavoidable for the most part but it does leave resentment and unsolved feelings behind.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), young adults are sensitive toward their peers and immediate environment and focus on long-term consequences which lead to compromised decision-making. Now as a young adult myself, if someone were to tell me that I have compromised decision-making, I would think that I am being underestimated. Therefore, infantilising young adults is not an option if one were to bring about supervision and independence into balance. A critical stage in life when one is struggling to establish their own identity independent of their family and peers, sensitivity and impulsiveness are bound to erupt as by-products. The one single mistake that colleges tend to make is to suppress the impulsivity and label it as a vice. In my personal experience being constantly reprimanded is not something that anyone enjoys, including children. In certain situations, I wondered if my mentors and professors have forgotten their stage of life when one is capable of completing the whole syllabus the day before the exams. There is one line that I hold very close to my heart, “If you treat children like they are all liars, they will behave like liars”. But at the end of the day, we are not all perfect and as humans, we are constantly learning. I remember my whole class being often characterised as the worst class or worst section by my teachers, both in college and in school. If we think about the mentors dealing with a bunch of high-energy humans in school and no-energy humans in college, the line is excusable. But a few words do affect one’s self-esteem and also motivation.
The empathy that a young adult needs is absent in most of the world therefore actually growing up into an adult becomes a struggle. But I cannot put the blame entirely on the mentors or the administration. Many of us that are young adults have their own view of the world in our heads which they think they can control, and once they see the consequences are not controllable in reality it results in a series of bad decisions. The long-term thinking of ‘you only live once’ sounds very convenient but we have all experienced the consequences of only following our impulses.
Now I am not saying that everything and everyone for young adults is gloomy or dim. On the contrary, it is filled with hope and passion for the future. It is just that sometimes curiosity takes the best out of new adults and college being a place where there are a bunch of young adults together, in one place, the impulses run astray. As Anne Frank rightly put in The Diary of a Young Girl – “We aren’t allowed to have any opinions. People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but it doesn’t stop you having your own opinion. Even if people are still very young, they shouldn’t be prevented from saying what they think,” this is just a reflection of how the majority of college-going children feel. If we talk about opinions there are no correct or incorrect opinions, but what there is, is the right to voice out your opinions. It is this fire of having a lot to say that fuels young minds. So instead of shutting them down, a listen goes a long way. I have been fortunate enough to have met people in my life including my mentors who have helped in building my confidence and my voice. College for me has been a place of transformations but it isn’t the same for everyone. In this age when insecurity and fear of not being good enough is so high, self-expression becomes difficult for young people. In this scenario, nothing except support can help bridge the gap between what is and what should be. With a little effort from both ends maybe we can stop other young adults from mimicking Anne Frank’s thoughts.
Deesha Mishra
Department of Philosophy
(5th Semester)
St.Anthony’s College, Shillong
Meghalaya
