Dear 2026,
I mean… you’re already here.
I can’t quite tell if last year moved fast or slow, and maybe that confusion is both a blessing and a burden. Existing in this world has never been easy for a Gen Z. Last year, I wrote to your predecessor and asked her to spare my generation from the chaos she carried, political unrest, violence, the kind of instability that steals sleep and peace. I didn’t think she would arrive with a new set of challenges of your own.
I should have known better.
My generation has a saying: no expectations, no disappointment.
It sounds bad, and maybe it is, but it’s a shield. A way to survive without breaking.
I know I’m supposed to be in charge of you, not the other way around. Still, I ask you gently: please be kind to my generation.
We’ve always been taught to fight. Fight for our place, our voices, our futures. Fight feels like our answer to everything, as if it were stitched into our fate before we even understood what resistance meant. But this year, I don’t want to fight just to survive you. Being Gen Z already means I’m fighting enough.
I’m fighting for my mental health, for clarity, for peace, for sanity in a world that rarely slows down.
I’m fighting for my career, building it from nothing, trusting that the seeds I plant will someday grow.
Sometimes, I’m fighting simply to exist.
We were born into an era that feels like a battlefield. And yet, somehow, we are still standing, still hoping to thrive. It sounds heavy, because it is. But I believe we were built for this. The Big Guy is a strategist. He knew what He was doing when He placed us here, at this exact time. He gave us the bones for the weight, the breath for the journey, and the courage to keep going.
So, as you reign, 2026, I pray this:
Do not let the war around us become the war within us.
Do not let survival steal our softness or our faith.
Be the year where we finally exhale.
Be the ground where our efforts begin to bear fruit.
Someone once joked, “I can’t believe the future is in my hands.”
A Gen Z joke, of course.
Funny, and terrifying.
But yesterday, you were the future. Today, you are here. And that means we are no longer imagining tomorrow; we are living in it. May you be the year that proves we can carry this future with wisdom, grace, and courage.
Please be kind to my people.
Do not let politics become the sinkhole that drowns my generation.
Do not let our mental health be the casualty of broken systems.
Do not be the earthquake that shakes our hope loose.
And above all, may the Big Guy go before us.
May He steady our steps, guard our minds, and remind us that we were never meant to do this alone.
May He turn our surviving into thriving, and our waiting into becoming.
Please, 2026, be kind to us.
Sincerely,
A Gen Z Dreamer
