The extraordinary steps of a gen Z

[Applause]

good morning everyone

my name is kim with it here i’m 19 years

old and

thank you very much for having got up so

early to be here

in a chilly weekend morning today i’m

gonna talk about

the most extraordinary step of mine

which i took

last year in february last year

after spending a lovely ted holiday with

my family

in my hometown i went back to ho chi

minh city

continue

and full of certainty that 2020 was

going to be my year

i’m gonna excel at my study i’m gonna

meet the coolest people i’m gonna

produce a lot of good content for my

youtube and blogs

every week i’m gonna make money and

and we all know what happened next

not so long after kobe 19 drove the

world crazy

and ho chi chi went into a complete

lockdown

with no end in sight my university

after delaying the commencement date of

the new semester

by two weeks decided that for the first

time ever in history

all the teaching and learning activities

would be carried out

online from an outgoing person

that would be on the road most of the

time i was then

having to spend 23 and 50 minutes

inside my house guess what i did in

that remaining 10 minutes outdoor

disposing garbage and collecting on

deliveries

useless and full of self-hatred that was

how

i felt during the lockdown

all our my attention span were

and my creativity was completely

dampened so i found it com

impossible to focus on my study and i

could not absorb any piece of knowledge

from

online learning and could not produce

any new content for my youtube

all i remember doing was just lazing

around and

scrolling through facebook and instagram

and tiktok with no intention in mind

i hate myself because i was not making

any progress

in my study my work or personal

development

i felt bad about feeling bad

it wasn’t okay to not feel okay

and i just miss my family

my friends and my vibrant life before

this disaster

at one point i gave in to those feelings

and burst into crying for 20 minutes

straight

why calling my best friend who was also

in lockdown in canada

turn out i wasn’t the only victim

my friend was also in serious stress as

well

and even in my darkest day i still

remember to take this precious

screenshot

because i know one day i’m going to be

talking about this one

so my friends was in lockdown in canada

and she felt a sense of guilty could not

continue

her part-time job and neither could she

focus on her study

according to unicef in 2019

from 8 to 29 of teenagers in vietnam

have problems with the mental health

other research

suggested that there are at least three

million

vietnamese teenagers facing mental

health issues

which is alarming and the most commonly

reported

reason is pressure

we legit constantly

attack by all sorts of external and

internal pressure every second we leave

it might be our parents who force us to

graduate with arna

to find a well-paid job it might be our

exceptional friends who just thinking

about

their achievements can make us feel so

small

or it might be the media has been

manipulating us

into believing and thinking that we must

acquire some certain achievements by a

certain age

in order to be considered successful and

happy

i remember coming across this article

while surfing the internet it says

why you are busy chatting online these

girls have bought their

cars and apartments wow

imagine feeling ashamed and having to

question your self-worth

after coming across a random article

written by someone you don’t know

about someone you don’t know as if

happiness and success were something one

size fit all

and could only be calculated by an

apartment

a car and can only be defined by a

certain group of people

globalization the media technological

advancements

economic developments and social

movements

have all contributed to make gen z an

unprecedentedly open

and receptive generation and with

openness

and receptiveness come vulnerabilities

the more external factors we come into

contact with

the more we need to be selective and to

add more futures into our life

to decide what

what and who can have a real impact on

our life

and how we should approach them

in the past it was the heinous word

the restricted socio-economic

background the harsh living condition

that deprived our grandparents or even

our parents

right to live their lives to their own

expectations

we the gen z by contrast

are so privileged thanks to the love

the effort the hard work the sacrifice

of our parents

we could go to piano classes we could

take english courses

and we have all sorts of technology and

facilities available at our fingertips

we’re probably the most privileged

generation

that our country has produced to date

and because we’re so endowed with so

many

privileges compared to our previous

generation

we are constantly under the pressure

only

succeed but to also achieve more than

what our parents and grandparents did

i bet we uh i bet we all uh

there seems to be no valid reason for us

to not succeed

because and if we fail who and what are

we going to blame except for ourselves

right we all want to be that person

who can speak three languages fluently

play at least one musical instrument

fashionable

tech savvy has a sense of humor

make a lot of friends and still maintain

a 4.0 gba at school and still have time

for family

we push ourselves to become that perfect

creature despite how well we know

it’s never going to happen i’m a bit

will

you or me might become that person one

day

but that one day is not tomorrow not

next week or next month

it takes time and we have limits

but so often we forget that we do

because we are so used to being in the

rat race

where people could go to airlines

just to move forward just to make

extraordinary steps

sometimes all we need to do is just slow

down

and listen to the energy

and the voices within and without

try listening to yourself figure out

what you want at the moment

set priorities and do not hesitate to

communicate your

pressure with your loved ones

bear in mind that failures are

inevitable

and what matters is how you harness your

energy

and approach and accept the failures

once you’ve come to realize that there

is always a lesson

to be grabbed from any experience or

incident in life

no matter how positive or negative you

will no longer

foster that unhealthy pressure to be

perfect

i’m not flexing i’m not boasting i’m not

bragging about anything

i’m just trying to emphasize

how much one or seemingly period of

stagnancy

or short rest you may call it

due to your mental health and your

productivity

i help myself a lot by just listen to

and gave myself a short break

the most extraordinary step i have taken

so far

is that bike and

next time you feel like you may need to

rest

or step back don’t panic just take it in

because because one famous leader once

said

it is necessary sometimes to step back

in order to take to step forward thank

you for your listen

you