In-between
Updated: Jan 12 2023
I was so excited for the holidays! Blinked and missed it. Is it just me or did it feel longer when we were kids? I think it’s because back then we didn’t have ‘goals’. You know couple goals, vacation goals, diet goals, weight goals, that goal and this goal. Everything is a goal these days. I think we are all subconsciously over-curating even our experiences. Wherever I went, all I saw were people with phones out. Including myself! You think, I could escape the jagged claws of ‘validation’? I mean did you even go on a vacation if you didn’t get a picture of it? I was watching the Dubai Dancing Fountains and someone next to me was saying, “…too much crowd, couldn’t see a thing. That’s ok, I got it on my phone….” That’s ok? Is that though? I suppose it is these days. But aren’t we all overdoing it a tad bit much?
Get Deepthi Vinod’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
You may disagree. But, whatever happened to the ‘art of just being’. You know like take a day off and just be. Do nothing, just be! But no, Instagram has told you that when you wake up on your day off, you need to breathe in and breathe out and get on with your morning skincare routine. Because, what other way were you going to ‘experience’ your day off? Don’t get me wrong, I love that shit ok? It’s just that it’s too curated, too exhausting sometimes. And it disappoints us, especially us — the millennials. Because I think we are a generation of misfits from the 80s and 90s who don’t quite get it. We think we do but we actually don’t. Let me explain.
We tasted things that the Gen-Zs never have ok. We knew what it was like to just be. When we were kids, yeah sure, there were few tuition classes. Ok, may be 2–3 classes like dance, singing or whatever. And then we would just be in our rooms, rewinding a cassette by turning it on a pencil and then just wondering why that splotch on the wall looks like a face.
But then it’s a whole new game now, singing, swimming, karate, taekwondo — kids are running from door to door. Can you imagine the overload of so called ‘skills’. Of course it seems overloading to me, but these are necessary skills I’m told. How are they going to compete with the world otherwise? I wonder when will they find time to just be? But as a result of that, may be they know what they need to expect from the world. May be! You might tell me that it’s part of progress and evolution. But still, I would think you’d be more equipped if you were born into an existing construct than when it is changing while you are beginning to get some sort of cognition? Ah yes, you might say, but with that argument, they might have other problems relevant to them that they need to deal with. But, let me tell you my friend — this blog is about millennials. Gen-Zs can write about their problems in a similar article somewhere else (don’t take me seriously, nobody does. There, there!)
So yeah, us millennials are stuck in between what it was then and how it is like now. I keep coming back to this example, but we are like Schrödinger’s cat, we are stuck there in our heads but we are also here now. Neither here, nor there! What a strange place to be in. We can collectively coo to ‘Washing powder Nirma’ and ‘Vicco Turmeric nahi cosmetic’ and also break into ‘Mera Dil Yeh Pukare Aaja’ dance number on TikTok. Have you heard that song? It starts with the old tune and midway converts itself into the most modern techno beat. Neither here, nor there! And that my friend is a perfect metaphor for how we, the kids of the 80s and 90s feel about ourselves. We are truly the in-betweeners!
