Article by Dr. Ng Wai Sheng
Image by Free-Photos on Pixabay
Sometimes it’s good to just vent, without other people getting all upset and concerned about your mental health or morality or sanity…
I learned this from a 17-year-old teenager who told me his existential anxieties… About growing up… Finishing school…Going college… Complicated gals and relationships…. Confusing world politics…. And the mysterious universe out there…
Clearly, this is a talented young man, who started questioning about his life, the world, and the universe beyond him, after reading the Ender’s Game saga in his early teens. Sitting there listening to him, I was mesmerized by the stories that he was trying hard to recite to me from his memory, about what he had read and resonated with…
I felt like a student again sitting in literature class, with a professor telling me interesting stories from the past and the future, and where facts and fictions were kinda mixed together… And my mind was just blown away!
Maybe the adults really have much to learn from the young! If only we spend some time to just LISTEN to what they can tell us, directly and indirectly, through words and symbols (art, music, behavioural symptoms etc.).
If only we can see beyond their angst and rebellious attitude, maybe we could also see their deep insecurity about who they are, and what the world requires of them….
Don’t we all feel that way, at some point in our own life journey? Maybe some of us adults are still struggling with that too?
When we can allow our own insecurities to affect us deeply, perhaps that’s when authentic connection begins… When we can connect at the most human level, perhaps that’s when we get to experience ourselves in the truest form – extremely vulnerable… AND… extremely strong!
Disclaimer: All stories presented in this article are based on, or inspired by actual events. In certain cases, incidents, characters and timelines have been changed for privacy and confidentiality purpose. Certain characters may be composites or archetypes, and are not intended to depict or allude to actual persons or families. Any resemblance to actual incidents, persons, places or events is entirely coincidental.
