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Arsh Gill, Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

Anxiety and uncertainty go hand in hand, being interrelated in the sense that both are natural and inevitable. You can never say for certain how things are going to play out in life, and you never know how or when anxiety can come or go.

There’s uncertainty in many aspects of our journey through life.

To begin, as I strongly relate to this being a student myself, there is lots of uncertainty when it comes to school. Uncertainty can arise in even the smallest of aspects of going to a lecture, such as who will I end up sitting by? Where will I park my car? Will I be able to find my building? Doubts such as these promote anxiety regarding future situations that we must face, and present a learning curve. The only reason I feel stressed out when walking into a class where I don’t know anybody is because I then think that I don’t have a seat in that class. Where do I sit? Who should I approach to become friends with? Will there be anyone else sitting by themselves? It is the uncertainty that things will work out in my favour that causes my level of anxiety to be raised rapidly. If I knew things were certain, such as having a good professor and having friends in that class, I wouldn’t think twice about attending the lecture. Instead, if anything, I would feel more relaxed and motivated to go to my class.

Another example is the uncertainty in meeting career goals. Now, though we should be believers in ourselves and reach for the stars, are we really just setting ourselves up for disappointment and failure from this? Becoming a lawyer, chiropractor, general practitioner or pursuing many other careers within Canada is extremely challenging, as the number of seats offered to students in these fields is very limited. This then causes many students to have to go abroad. The desire to reach these goals causes one to experience a disproportionate amount of anxiety, as their entire future hangs in the balance, and they are forced to spend years in places where they might not want to be. Although these are more structured career options, others such as being a social media influencer, model or artist can breed anxiety in different ways, as these careers don’t  have the same guarantee of success. There’s uncertainty there, in that one may find themselves suddenly switching career paths in order to make a stainable living and a failed passion can cause a ton of anxiety.

Another often-challenging aspect in life is finding a partner, your so-called soulmate whom you will be spending the rest of your life with. There’s uncertainty in the aspect of ever actually finding this person. What if this person doesn’t exist? What if you never run into the person of your dreams, or even the person you could see yourself settling with? Now, if you’re reading this and you haven’t met this person in life yet, chances are I probably raised some doubt in your mind, making you feel anxious about how uncertain the future.

Remember, anxiety is all too common and it’s never spoken about enough, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone.

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