Video Transcription

Hey everyone, my name is Jahin. I am a second-year optometry student, and I’m 20 years old. I’m currently based in Canberra, and I’ve been in the youth advocacy, mental health, and multicultural field since I graduated high school in 2018. The reason I’m very passionate about the mental health field is, you know, I come from a South Asian background, so my background and community are migrant-oriented, and mental health in that space is still a massive taboo. It’s a stigma that surrounds, you know, young people getting access to mental health, seeing a psychologist.

For me, you know, I really want to take some responsibility and ensure that, you know, my peers and just the people around me are able to access just the bare minimum and, you know, receive the treatment and help that they deserve. Because, you know, mental health is such an important issue, especially during this year, so that’s been my main ambition and something I hope to pursue as I get older and really, you know, work with more young people.

I think one of the main strategies that I’ve used has to be staying organized with all my things, and the main coping mechanism that I’ve used is to write things down. So instead of feeling overwhelmed or unproductive after a long day, I tend to write down my thoughts, things I want to get done, things I feel like, you know, I want to achieve during this period. And that’s helped me, you know, not look back at the long game and just feel like, “Oh, I haven’t done enough,” or “I feel unproductive,” or just feel overwhelmed.

So, um, that’s been one of my coping mechanisms, as well as just being kinder to myself, you know, understanding that we’re in a situation that was unforeseen at the beginning of the year. So just, you know, understanding that and acknowledging that is a good way to just say, “Hey, you know, you deserve a break. You deserve to take some time off,” and really, you know, understand that, um, you know, this isn’t something we ever expected. So, you know, being more confident in yourself and seeing what you’ve done is enough for this period, and then obviously looking at a more optimistic and hopeful future. I think that’s been the mentality that I’ve tried to create through organization, through thinking properly and reflecting.

But yeah, that’s been my main strategy to cope.

Yep, so on a more personal note, a big passion of mine and a big goal of mine has always been writing. So just writing different things—articles, you know, poetry, things like this. But when I realized, what I realized is, going into university when you have work and, you know, uni life and a social life and advocacy, it can get very overwhelming. So you don’t really have time to sit down and actually take the time to write things.

So what I realized during this lockdown period is you have a lot more time, and you have a lot more time to stay organized, which has allowed me to focus a lot on my writing. You know, send it to publications, actually get things published, which is something I never thought I would ever see my name on. So in that sense, you know, I try to look at these situations sort of like a blessing in disguise, where you’re allowed to focus and really branch out into things that you probably wouldn’t do in normal times because you’d see the whole busyness of life and just the hectic nature of your schedule as a massive obstacle from even sitting down and actually taking the time off to really focus on the things that, you know, are more than a hobby—more so a passion.

So that’s been a bit of a goal of mine that I’ve been able to define and really set out. And obviously, I’ve seen other young people take the time off to focus on exercising, you know, their own writing, you know, focusing on their hobbies. So I think it’s been, you know, a good time to really find yourself in a sense because you’re able to reflect on, you know, what you’ve been doing, what you want to do, and how you want to move forward throughout the years.

So I think it’s been a good time for some things to, you know, reevaluate yourself and understand what you want and what you need. Being able to celebrate small tasks and just small achievements during the day is such an effective way of reflecting back and saying, “Hey, you know, at least I did these things,” rather than having nothing written down and just feeling overwhelmed.

But also adding to that, I think just understanding that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. I think when we started this year, all of us had so many, you know, great and grand plans that we had, goals that we wanted to achieve, whether that be traveling or, you know, personal achievements, professional achievements, which have, you know, sort of stagnated due to COVID-19.

But I think understanding that, you know, putting small efforts in throughout the year will accumulate in the future, because, you know, we won’t always be in such a, you know, difficult situation like this year for the rest of our lives. So just, you know, understanding that and reflecting on that and being, you know, optimistic in a sense because, you know, if we put the small efforts in and, you know, work towards the goal that we want, at the end of the day, it will come eventually.

Situations will come, opportunities will knock on the door. So I think having that mentality is obviously easier said than done, but I think if we can work on it every single day and just understand that, you know, there will be a time when we are able to achieve these goals that we set out for ourselves, I think would be a good outlook to take.

Especially as young people, you know, if we look at social media, we see so many people doing so many things every single day, but we forget to realize that our time will come, you know. Our time for goals, or setting those goals and achieving those goals, will come. So I think that’s been, you know, a big shift in mentality for me, and I think I would definitely recommend other young people to try.