Lola, a 22-year-old from Austin, Texas, starts her interview by revisiting her relationship with her parents.
The struggle of accepting our path stems from the very first journey we encounter along the way: our parents.
Lola’s serial entrepreneur father has left an indelible mark on her life. His entrepreneurial spirit inspired her to strive and led her to work alongside him as an operations manager and assistant marketing director in his company. His influence is a powerful example of parental guidance shaping personal development.
Like many, she’s a child of divorce, and in the first stages of the transition, she struggled with finding a balance between accepting change and pain. Today, she is happy to share her experience and lives well with the decision to rely on one parental figure, her father.
“Parents are human; once you figure that out, it becomes easier to forgive and move on.” As a starting note to our interview, I was not surprised to admire her words, as they hold a truth we eventually acknowledge at one stage.
The discussion following this prelude moved into one’s definition of expectations: how many of the expectations we surround ourselves with come from our environment? Lola admitted that most of her intrusive thoughts stemmed from her mind, and a part of it went by the need to make others proud. She started college amid the pandemic, Psychology, “I felt it could be fun,” she quickly realized fun was not part of the picture she had in mind and found herself juggling school, family, and work on the cusp of a breakdown. “It was probably a day in mid-September when I was trying to complete this assignment…I saw that my psychology professor had dropped me. I emailed her, and I was like, what’s wrong? I turn in everything; what’s going on? And it turned out that the English professor had emailed her, saying don’t give this kid a chance. She’s a slacker.” In some way, Lola felt she had failed college, but college had also failed her by making her feel “not enough.”
She didn’t find the support she had looked for in college, but luckily, she found it elsewhere. She found guidance in a now “uncle figure,” who, at the time, helped her with placing herself first and expectations last.
Since then, Lola has thrived in placing her desires at the front of her life.
Lola’s story is a testament to the benefit of having multiple mentor figures in one’s life. Although loneliness may sometimes feel like our best bet when faced with a challenge, it is a choice we make, and needless to say, in unity, there is strength.
Given our interview, the circumstances beg the question, “Is the traditional path to college dying?”.
As the chemist Antione-Laurent de Lavoisier once said: “Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, and everything is transformed.” The so-called traditional path is not dying; it is changing, and Gen Z is at the cusp of this transformation.
You can follow Lola’s journey along with some of her peers on our latest podcast, Un-Charted Your Sidekick for Life.
In the first episode, Becky Henderson, a licensed therapist, career coach, and motivational speaker, joins the conversation to provide valuable insights and practical advice. As a seasoned mental health professional and career coach, Becky offers guidance and strategies to help our Gen Z contributors and listeners navigate their mental health journeys with confidence and resilience.
Join us on our journey.
You can find Lola’s episode here:
Inside Out: Gen Z’s Mental Health Journey with Becky Henderson
This blog was written by Anais Schmidt, one of the hosts of the Uncharted Podcast. Anais is also an aspiring musician. When not in her studio, she tours Europe with Monte Mai.
If you would like to join the conversation email us at [email protected]
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