The Easily-Offended Generation: Why is Everyone So Sensitive These Days?
An “unpopular” view on the triggers of offense
It was the night of the burial of my mother’s best friend. One of the relatives of that bereaved family had a casual conversation with my mom. I sat beside them on the bench, conservatively sipping my coffee, to offer my sympathies and perhaps gather wisdom from their life stories.
I was starting to love the flow of their heart-to-heart dialogue until that lady, a stranger to me, abruptly put me in the spotlight and unapologetically advised my mom:
“You know Nelia, your son should have a deep desire to get married someday because it’s sad to grow old alone,” she delivered confidently with a poker face and continued, “... he also needs to save money for himself and put a limit on giving it away.”
She then looked at me with a confused expression, “I heard you will go back to Saudi Arabia to work, ‘kuya’ [endearment in Tagalog]. Why Saudi of all the countries? Are there any good jobs there?”.
Fun Fact: We don’t know each other.
The silence in my body can no longer contain the deafening lines of unspoken counter-arguments rallying inside my brain. I kept on telling myself over and over again, “Not the right place, Edneil…