I can’t understand our generation. I can’t understand why we all pretend we’re so ‘broken’. I can’t understand wanting to be unique so badly that you have to pretend there is something wrong with you. But most of all, I can’t understand this plethora of patheticness overcoming Generation Y. Are we really all so desperate for attention that we need to make up ridiculous stories about being bullied/teased/depressed/have some sort of ailment to make the general populous feel sorry for us? Why so many of us want to be recognized as ‘f*cked up’?

Don’t misconstrue the point I’m trying to get across. I fully and complete comprehend the seriousness of mental illnesses and other issues. I’ve been exposed to quite a few survivors over my lifetime, including immediate family members. The issue I want to discuss is that people feel upset one day, people who feel fat one day, people who blatantly lie about their health in order to be different.

My ex-roommate is a prime example.

She runs her own blog here on tumblr describing her struggle with anorexia. She has hundreds upon hundreds of followers all reading her every day trials and tribulations with the disease. The only issue is that she isn’t anorexic. She’s got no problems with food. Her only mental illness is her pathological lying. She had everyone around her, not only her tumblr followers that she was on a slow spiral into extreme anorexia. However, after 2 months of her coming home and saying she’d eaten nothing all day, I begun to realise that if she really was eating nothing all day, she would’ve dropped about 10 kilograms by now; that if she wasn’t eating anything, why was I constantly finding empty packets of food in her room; that is she really was anorexic, why was all the food in my cupboard disappearing with no logical explanation?

There is no denying that she has serious issues. Along with everyone else in our generation, I’m no denying there are true issues. But they’re often not the issues that everyone is claiming it to be. None of our generation are actually attempting to remedy the true ailment and the true cause because it’s easier to pass off their resentment towards things as another issue. It’s all a cry for attention. And with the rates of both parents working full-time jobs to have to make ends-meat, it doesn’t surprise me.

I have problems with anxiety. I know this. I know what cause this. It wasn’t because I was teased in high school. It wasn’t because my parents ignored it. It wasn’t any of the cliche reasons people are providing for their problems. It is because I put too much pressure on myself to reach the highest targets. I was one of Generation ‘Why’. This was until I made the decision to do something about it. To stop pitying myself, to stop wanting others to pity me. I chose to stop being a victim of my past and myself. And I’m better for it.

There comes a time where we need to grow up and stop being victims of our past and ourselves. We’re no longer children. Our generation our now nearly all adults. This means we need to take responsibility for our actions, including the words that come out of our mouths. Take responsibility for your own well being, stop pitying yourself, stop wanting others to pity you, come to terms with the real issue and solve it, instead of sitting around making up bullsh*t lies and constantly asking “why me?”. Don’t be a part of Generation ‘Why’. Be a part of Generation ‘Yes’.

We’ve all tried to push people into little cardboard boxes with big black labels on them before. It’s part of our nature as human being; if we don’t understand something, we try to shove it into another category that makes more sense to us rather than trying to comprehend it. Everyone has seen that girl with all the make up on, the tight little dress who is flirting with all the boys in the room. Or that gorgeous guy who picks up girls every weekend by lying and sleezing onto them. Or that person who comes across as a huge snob, who never wants to speak to you. We’re all so quick to judge one another without considering the true reasons behind others actions. People don’t act the way the do for no reason. So maybe it’s time to give that girl in the high heels a break.

I was totally shocked when I was told that someone thought I was a snob. I couldn’t understand where they’d pulled it from. I work in retail and hospitality; I have to talk to people! It actually hurt quite a bit to hear the words, “Wow, I always thought you were a giant snob because you never talked to me”. It wasn’t at all that I was ‘snobbing’ this person. I was simply too shy to talk to them. Until my move to the big city, I was always hesitant to talk to people I didn’t know. Once I relocated, I literally had to come out of my shell or else I wouldn’t have been able to make friends. However, my shyness came across as being a giant ice queen to some people instead.

There is a girl I know who is absolutely stunning. She is a beautiful person inside and out, although to first meet her you might find her, for lack of better words, a superficial bitch. It isn’t until you get to know her and her back story that you realize that she isn’t this at all. Yet so many people judge her without getting to know her as a person.

I’m not saying that purely nasty people in this world don’t exist. We all know that they most certainly do. What I’m trying to convey is the importance of being non-judgmental. That girl you labelled a “slut” because she went home with a guy from the club? She might have just broken up with her boyfriend and is looking for an escape. She may have never had any male attention in her younger years and is now enjoying herself. People don’t act the way they do without due reason. Quite often, there has been some sort of opinion  imposed on them or some trauma to cause them to go about things a particular way. So why are we all so keen on putting anyone we don’t fully understand into a set, imposed category?

There is not a category for everyone in this world. To think that we can segregate society into little labelled boxes is ridiculous. We’re all so different and unique. Because of this we can’t cordon people off. Once you learn to accept people for who they are, you discover a whole new world at your feet. There are so many interesting people in the world, and by judging other before they even open their mouth, you’re shutting yourself off to so many intriguing life stories. I have friends from every subculture because I choose not to judge, and just accept them for their life choices. I have gay friends, tattooed friends, geeky friends, multicultural friends and I enjoy spending time with all of them equally because of their quirks. Enjoy others differences and you might meet someone you never want to forget.