I can only imagine what it’s like to be a youth growing up in this day and age.
A youth may be forced to deal with the consequences of colonialism early on in life, which is a problem facing children across North America but is particularly concentrated here in the Arctic.
Even if youth are able to avoid or endure these initial challenges, they still have to complete the education system. In spite of tireless efforts of teachers and school staff to enrich the minds, bodies and souls of every student who walks through their door, all educators will readily admit there’s only so much they can do — for schools to succeed they need proper funding, which ebbs and flows at the whim of the voter. Navigating the maze of school social life remains as challenging for kids as ever.
As one gets older and learns more about the world, their heritage, science and history, things get even more depressing. Not only are languages disappearing, entire worlds are melting away. I’m sure most kids growing up today are acutely aware the North they’re experiencing is not going to be the North they raise their own kids in or grow old in.
Every year, youth in Tuktoyaktuk — and I suspect all along the Beaufort Sea — watch their home crumble into the ocean as climate change continues to get worse and worse. As demonstrated by the delegation of Tuk youth who presented their documentary ‘Happening to Us’ to the United Nations a few years back, clearly youth in Tuktoyaktuk don’t want to lose their homeland. But instead seeing a positive change from their work, they watch adults complain about the price of gas.
It’s like we’re all on the Titanic, we can see the iceberg approaching, but we forgot the escape boats and life jackets and everyone on board insists we can’t change course because it will make the caviar too expensive.
People often complain how youth are addicted to video games, but really, let’s look at this from a youth’s perspective. Here in the real world, all the amazing creatures like polar bears, sharks, lions, elephants and whales are in danger of going extinct, along with people’s language and heritage — and every time society gets close to implementing a solution, someone stops it because of money. If you want to afford a place of your own, you are required to invest a third of your life into education and training until you at least have an undergraduate degree, portfolio or a recognized trade. Then you might stand a chance of landing a job in your area of interest — assuming that either 1) artificial Intelligence doesn’t beat you to it or 2) a politician doesn’t villainize your field of study and makes it impossible to do. The expectation is you work hard so you can work harder so you can work even harder so that the establishment can either exploit or invalidate your work.
Compare this to any game on the market where you are given a set of guidelines, which if you follow are rewarded with advancement, either through more interesting tasks, more abilities to use or otherwise enhancing your experience. Hard work and creativity pay off far more efficiently in fantasy than reality, where usually the first lesson you learn coming out of high school is to shut up and do your job if you want to keep it.
Now with climate change, youth have the daily reminder they could be forced to evacuate their home at any given time. They’re forced to live with this reality because we adults are slaves to money and have largely refused a change to a more sustainable economy, not because of anything they’ve done.
It’s no wonder by the time many people get close to 30 they’ve basically given up. This is a problem not limited to the Beaufort Delta, but across the North and, I suspect, across Earth. Some find purpose through activism, art, a career or family, but many people simply drift until they sink.
If we want our youth to survive dangerous self-harming thoughts, we need to build a world worth living in.