T-16 Days to August 7th

The last 24 days have felt like a lifetime. When I first floated this 40 to 40 idea to a few friends, it felt like a neat little project. Now it feels like something entirely different.

Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect. Zero idea. I didn’t have time to set expectations.

Would I blow up and have all of my wildest dreams come true? Not likely. But at the very least maybe I could reach a few people and make a difference.

So last week, when a member of Gen Z started engaging with my videos on TikTok, my world cracked open. Because suddenly I saw just how much this series might matter.

I remember, very clearly in fact, what it was like in my 20s to feel like the world was piling on me. It felt like everyone around me was figuring life out while I was left behind with my head stuck between two fence posts.

It felt suffocating.

This was a time when people were only starting to acknowledge mental health. I felt alone, and I was terrified to tell anyone.

Now we have an entire generation facing impossible circumstances. Skyrocketing rental prices. A housing market that feels rigged against them. And entry level jobs that are being replaced by artificial intelligence.

All of that while trying to figure out the landscape of how we can discuss mental health openly across generations.

Before those comments came in, I had planned to talk about something else, about consistency, and facing hard things head-on. That the longer we let our problems sit in the shadows, the bigger and more terrifying they become.

Facing problems, no matter how large or small we perceive them to be, is like exercising. The more we do it, the stronger those muscles get. We build calluses, and in turn we grow more resilient to the anxiety that once surrounded them.

If I’m learning anything from this series, and in-turn from the generation that’s hot on our tails, it’s that the issues we’re facing are not confined to a single generation.

I think back and I fail to come up with a time in my life when I can remember solutions being cross-generational. Maybe that’s due to my limited worldview.

If healing is going to happen, it has to reach across generations. We can’t afford to stay siloed anymore.