Dear 2025, I write to you as a member of Gen Z, a generation that has seen more of the world’s complexities and challenges than any of us should have to. As we stand on the threshold of a new year, I want to speak directly to you, to ask for compassion and to demand justice. We, the youth, are tired. We are tired of feeling like we have to fight for our future with our very lives.
It’s been hard for us, harder than it should be. We are a generation born into a world teetering on the edge of change and uncertainty, where economic instability, climate crises, and social divisions make our lives feel fragile. We are told constantly that the future is in our hands, but when we reach for it, we often find that it is locked behind doors we are not allowed to open. The dreams of success feel like a distant horizon we cannot quite reach, and for every step we take forward, we are pushed back.
We live in a world where our mental health is often overlooked, where we are told to be strong in the face of overwhelming pressures, but no one tells us how to handle the weight of it all. Anxiety, depression, burnout—these are terms we know all too well. We are expected to excel academically, work tirelessly, be constantly innovative, and yet we are given fewer opportunities to thrive. The fight to survive is exhausting, and the constant sense of instability only adds to the strain.
2025 Please Be Kinder to Us.
But in 2025, we will not be silenced. We are a generation that chooses to stand up, to speak out against decisions that threaten our future. We are the ones who protested when the world seemed to overlook climate change, to racial injustice, to policies that restrict our voices and opportunities. Furthermore, we are the ones who fight for better mental health care, better representation, and a better future.
I ask you, 2025, do not make us fight for our futures with our lives. We should not have to face the kind of oppression that forces us into the streets.
And yet, 2025, we are being forced to fight in ways no generation should have to. Our right to express our grievances has been stifled by the very systems that claim to protect us. We are living in fear, not only of the world we see, but also of the forces we cannot see—forces that threaten us with abductions and violence. We live in a time when governments, in their desperation to suppress dissent, have turned against their own people. We are hunted for raising our voices, for standing up to oppression, for fighting for a future that is rightfully ours.
Social media, once a platform for self-expression and connection, has become a battlefield. It is no longer a safe space where we can speak freely, share our hopes, or challenge the status quo. Now, our every word is monitored, our every post is scrutinized, and even our digital presence is a risk. The platforms we once relied on for solidarity have turned into arenas where fear and silence are cultivated.
We have seen our brothers and sisters fall—lives lost in protests, lives that were stolen from us too soon. 2025, you have to understand the pain of watching those we love, those who share our fight, die for a cause that should never have needed to be fought in the first place. They gave everything, and they are gone. But we will carry their memory, and we will continue their fight.
What is it like to be a youth today? It is a feeling of uncertainty, of being caught between the desire to build a better tomorrow and the constant pressure to navigate a world that seems intent on keeping us down. Every decision feels like a gamble, every step a battle. But we fight, because we know we cannot sit back and let our future be decided by those who refuse to understand what it’s like to be us.
I ask you, 2025, do not make us fight for our futures with our lives. We should not have to face the kind of oppression that forces us into the streets, risking everything just to be heard. Do not place us in a world where we have to choose between survival and success. We want to thrive, not just survive. We want to open doors, not break them down.
Please, let 2025 be the year when things change. Let it be a year when the world listens to us, a year when youth are not just seen as a threat or a nuisance but as the innovators, the dreamers, and the builders of tomorrow. Open the doors for us. Give us the opportunities to create, to lead, to live in a world that values our mental health, our diversity, and our potential.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
We carry within us the deep knowledge that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.” We are yearning for that freedom now. We cannot be silenced or ignored forever. We will not rest until we see the change we are fighting for.
We also understand the truth in King’s words from his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This is our truth, our collective reality. The injustices we face today are not isolated. They affect us all, and until we are all free, none of us are truly free.
I pray that 2025 is a year of healing for us, a year of growth, and a year when we are no longer forced to choose between our future and our lives. Let us rise to the challenges before us without fear, without the crushing weight of oppression holding us down. Let us shine in the way we were always meant to.
Sincerely,
A Gen Z Dreamer
