AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The graduating college class of 2024 has been through a lot. Like, just think for a moment about what's transpired the last four years during the pandemic, closures across the country.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: When they left for spring break, they never imagined they wouldn't be able to go back to their schools to wrap up their senior year.
CHANG: Then protests against police brutality.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Say her name.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Chanting) Breonna Taylor.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Who screams?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Chanting) I scream.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Chanting) Who screams?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Chanting) I scream.
CHANG: Then an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: We're going to try to get compliance, but this is now effectively a riot.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: 1549 hours, declaring it a riot.
CHANG: The fall of Roe v. Wade.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Five justices ended the right of American women to choose abortion under the Constitution.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #3: (Chanting) Abort the court.
CHANG: Then war in Ukraine, then war in Gaza, which then sparked massive protests on college campuses this spring.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #4: (Chanting) We're students united. We'll never be defeated.
CHANG: In four short years, these college students have lived through uncertainty, chaos and unrest. And for some, that has actually been inspiring.
ANAKA SRINIVAS: I've never understood the term comrades in arms as much as I have, like, after seeing everything that has happened in the world so far.
MEI LAMISON: I do believe that the world would be a better place because of the kids who are in college right now.
CHANG: But for others, they have lost the optimism and hope that they had as high schoolers.
ALEXIS JONES: 18-year-old me was very charged and, like, I was very energized and I felt very empowered in my voice, and, like, it would affect change, but I really don't feel that way now.
CHANG: CONSIDER THIS - the graduating college class of 2024 has come of age during tumultuous times. How has living through all of this shaped their perspective on the world that they are graduating into?
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CHANG: From NPR, I'm Ailsa Chang.
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CHANG: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. The class of 2024 has had a pretty unconventional college experience to put it lightly. Many kicked off their freshman year in isolation and attended their first college classes on Zoom. And now, as they prepare to graduate, protests against the war in Gaza are disrupting campuses across the country. We wanted to hear from some students of the class of 2024 to talk about how the last four years have impacted them.
LAMISON: Everyone tells you when you're growing up, you live through history. But I don't think anyone prepared us for this much history.
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CHANG: A concentrated dose of history.
That's Mei Lamison, who is graduating from New York University.
JONES: Having the Black Lives Matter protests then the insurrection then all these allegations and open cases on Trump and then Roe v. Wade.
CHANG: And that's Alexis Jones, who's graduating from Cornell.
SRINIVAS: Living through all of this, to some extent, has made people aware of the power that we hold as a collective.
CHANG: And that is Anaka Srinivas, who's graduating from Northwestern. I started our conversation with the event that flipped many of our worlds upside down - the pandemic.
So when you all think about the pandemic and what it took away from you, like, going back to high school, senior year, all the way through the beginning of college, there was missed prom, there was weird socialization rituals happening during freshman year, hybrid classes, screen fatigue, do you have feelings of grief, of bitterness, of resentment when you think about what the pandemic did to your early years in college?
LAMISON: This is Mei. I think a lot of people lost family members or community members or friends to COVID. And it's so hard to be in that position to have that grief for someone that you love. And kind of speaking out of my experience, I did lose someone to COVID.
CHANG: I'm sorry.
LAMISON: Oh, thank you so much. But having that kind of put next to everything else being taken away, it just feels weird because you can look at it rationally and you can say, oh, well, it's OK for me to feel sad for things like - trivial things like my prom being taken away or my freshman year being online. But then you almost feel bad for feeling bad about it because you know on the global scale, so many other things are happening that are so much worse. And I think a lot of us have had to ration with these really complicated feelings, again, at, like, 17.
CHANG: Like feeling guilty for feeling sad.
LAMISON: Feeling guilty for feeling upset.
CHANG: What about Anaka and Alexis? Do you relate to some of that guilt that Mei is talking about?
SRINIVAS: I think our class is probably, like, the most resilient group of people that I have seen in recent times, just, you know, the COVID, like, the pandemic hit, and then the protests for George Floyd started happening for Black Lives Matter. And, you know, seeing all of that happen and then thinking to yourself, like, whining about not having a graduation, like, that's what it felt like...
CHANG: Yeah.
SRINIVAS: ...You know? I think all of the things that were happening in the world served to provide some perspective, in a way, in the sense that things could be so much worse for us. And so, in a way, it was, like, yes, like, I did miss out on a lot, and in some ways, I still feel guilty about complaining about things that I've missed out on now - right? - like, as a senior in college.
CHANG: So many of your formative years were during the pandemic. You talk about resilience. What about other things? What - tell me what you learned because of the pandemic. How do you think you changed over the last four years? When you think about your 18-year-old selves, how has the way you think about and view the world changed?
SRINIVAS: Well, I think that for me, I became an inherently more positive person as a result of everything that has happened.
CHANG: Wow.
SRINIVAS: And so when I say resilience, I really mean that I think our class has this incredible capability to, like, come together for these big issues, regardless of how they're feeling or how upset they are at the time. I've seen it time and time again on campus in terms of BLM, Ukraine, Roe v. Wade, most recently for Palestine. The way that we are able to mobilize ourselves to come together for something even in the worst of times I think is something really, really special that I've seen happen.
CHANG: Alexis, what do you think you've learned about yourself the last four years?
JONES: Yeah. I also feel I've learned something in line with resiliency. And I'm also thinking of your prior question about feeling grief and all the different emotions that come with living through such tumultuous times. I started to feel a lot of community right before COVID hit, and then COVID kind of muddled a lot of the progress I felt that was being made. And then coming back together, as was it Anaka saying as well, that we all were coming together and forming community around complex issues, although we all have our personal lives as well where things are also happening. But I felt that throughout all of that, I kept feeling just a tiredness with everything.
CHANG: As the class that graduated high school, like, at the height of the pandemic, what has it been like graduating college now during these anti-war protests, seeing these protests become the backdrop to your last moments in college? How have you been feeling about that? Is there a part of you that's like, oh, my God, again? Another thing?
LAMISON: This is Mei. In 2024, you know, we're seeing graduations across the country being canceled, your protests, another Trump v. Biden election. So it almost feels like we've come full circle, and I don't think that a lot of people, and a lot of students in particular, are happy with where we're at. And so when we think also about how the pandemic has reshaped our view on the world, even though I do think it has given me resilience and my class resilience, it's given me also this expectation that things are going to get worse.
CHANG: Oh gosh. Like, you walk around with a perpetual sense of doom?
LAMISON: Yeah, a little bit, a little bit of existentialism. I also think, though...
CHANG: Whereas...
LAMISON: ...The pandemic...
CHANG: ...Anaka's like, I'm now more positive (laughter).
LAMISON: Yeah. I know. And I want to say that. I do. Like, that's my, like, desired mindset, but it's almost like so many punches have been thrown, you just keep expecting another one.
CHANG: Let me ask all of you. I hear Mei say that she's now a nihilist. I hear Anaka saying she now feels like she's a more positive person. How do you all feel about the world that you are graduating into?
JONES: This is Alexis. Yes, I feel like for the Mei's nihilism, it's also, like, Anaka's positivity is the remedy because the state of the world is very tumultuous, is very hectic and it also does seem like things will be continuing in this manner, kind of this existential dread and doom that we all are speaking of. But then it's like, OK, if this is the state of the world, how - what is my response to that? What is my communal and unified response to that? And I feel that that is where the positivity comes in, and, like, seeing everybody pull together for these various causes and be so young and also be experiencing so many things at the same time, I think, kind of sets it up so that in the future, when we're all graduated, we still have this unity, and we also rely on this community that we've been able to develop.
CHANG: Well, now there's a new incoming college class that has been struggling, too - right? Like, the high school class...
JONES: Yeah.
CHANG: ...Of 2024, entered high school during the pandemic and now is going to be starting college on the heels of these protests right before a presidential election this fall. What is your advice to them?
JONES: It seems that, like, for Anaka, like, and also for Mei, like, nihilism is a form of working to be realistic and to, you know, digest the things that are happening to us. And the same thing with positivity. And I think the solution that I've been hearing throughout all of our conversation is to rely on community. And I think maybe rather than looking to just a club for something to add to your resume or for something to help you within the workforce or maybe even thinking of it as your own personal individual bubble, you can think of it as how are we coming together and how is this one community connected to the next? My advice is to the incoming class to really value and lean on one another and also the elder or higher up figures that are also working alongside you.
CHANG: Anaka?
SRINIVAS: Yeah. I 100% resonate with what Alexis said. You know, I think that if I were kind of starting over, I think I would tell myself to lean into my discomfort a little bit more and ask myself why I feel the way I do. And I think that's a really crucial part of finding your community because when you find people that are kind of having the same feelings as you, feeling the same type of discomfort as you, that starts to go away, and you start to learn how to deal with it, and it makes you more resilient, I think, to confront those things head-on with a group of people around you.
LAMISON: For the incoming class of what - would it be 2028?
CHANG: Yeah.
LAMISON: That is not a real year.
SRINIVAS: Oh, my God.
CHANG: (Laughter).
LAMISON: For the incoming class of 2028, I would say be proud to be a part of Gen Z. Our generation is so incredible, and like you just heard from Anaka and Alexis, it is resilient, it is hopeful, that you are a part of this group of changemakers. But that being said, don't feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. It's OK to take a step back, it's OK to put your phone on do not disturb and it's OK to be a little bit selfish and, you know, participate in a lot of these college experiences that maybe we didn't get to do or other people missed out on. But know that you can be both an activist and a changemaker, and you can also just be a person.
CHANG: I love that. Mei Lamison, Anaka Srinivas and Alexis Jones, congratulations to all three of you. The world is a better, brighter, more awesome place because the three of you exist. Best of luck to you all.
SRINIVAS: Thank you so much.
LAMISON: Thank you so much.
JONES: Thank you. That is so lovely.
LAMISON: Thank you.
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CHANG: This episode was produced by Brianna Scott, and it was edited by Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun. And one more thing before we go. You can now enjoy the CONSIDER THIS newsletter. We still help you break down a major story of the day, but you'll also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org/considerthisnewsletter.
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CHANG: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR. I'm Ailsa Chang.
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