The Gen-z Trap

 

The Gen z dream... What a wonderful concept.

We always see it in the movies in stereotypical format:

Graduate university, get accepted into a fortune 500 company, face some existential complex and somehow, magically end up walking away victorious and with a girl.

I wonder if this format will ever change?

Will Hollywood ever acknowledge how outdated this is? 

Imagine if movies were something like this:

You always think you're something special, that you are destined for something else. Something better.

You enter university thinking that, just because it is an amazing university, hiring managers will take note and that your grades will matter.

You think your graduation will be legendary and that you will take one of those pictures with your hat being in the air. Instead, reality strikes with a pale comparison by making a weird disease that renders the world immobile. Fresh air becomes a stark smoke-infused and cold AC alternative.

You stretch your feet in breaks between Microsoft teams and Zoom destined reality. 

You hear familiar voices and see familiar faces but it is not the same as real life.

 Your graduation paper becomes a graduation slip.

However, all of this doesn't hinder you... You are not 18 anymore. You are unhindered by the stereotypical expectations of pop culture. The older I get, the more my expectations meet reality.

Back when I was a high schooler, I played a game called "Wolfenstein"; it revolves around your stereotypical American muscle-infused hero who manages to kill Nazis and end a war. The game made a perfect ending seemingly imminent, however, instead of walking away from a burning Nazi castle with the villain dead and the girl between the protagonist's arms, the protagonist informs her of the following:

" I believe there are still places on this earth where people can go. And live happy".

"I believe so too. But not for me and you".

A not so stereotypical ending after all.

This reminds me of my old partner who was the only person capable of stealing my heart and locking me out of my own heart when she managed to cheat on me after two years.

As the protagonist says: "Inhale count to four. Exhale. Count to four".

Months later, what once was became separable from what is and what will be. 

I slowly got up and left the dusted window sills and doormat of what once was. Somethings need to die in order for new things to be born.

"Inhale count to four. Exhale. Count to four".

In this scenario, the person who I once was needed to die for me to move on. This wasn't hard as I didn't know who I was looking at in the mirror; was I the charming young man who went and achieved everything he set out to do and flourished Four years abroad or was I the guy who got cheated on, was unemployed for almost a year, and the "deadbeat"?

A year later, I did move on: I found a job, got my act together, and became the charming young gentleman I once was... However, I can never become that person again... That person died long ago...The new me is a warrior who shall stop at nothing to become better. My new calling is to eat good food, experience good things, learn more, and never invest in anyone without equal investment in me. 

If you ask me, Hollywood is overrated. 

This, my dears, is the Gen-z trap.