In the fall of 2014, my parents dragged me into the then newly released movie “Interstellar”.
I will say it carefully: my mood was cracked.
After all, I was fourteen and all I was doing was shopping with my friends, the new season of Germany's Next Topmodell and Maxi from 8b.
But by the time the film began, drawing me into the dystopian tale of widowed protagonist Cooper and his daughter, the grudges were forgotten.
I was catapulted into a future where life on earth would soon be impossible.
Severe environmental pollution, technological decline and scarce food burden humanity in the film, so Cooper and a few others go in search of a plan B - another viable planet.
At that time I was intoxicated.
Almost ten years later, that seems downright naïve to me.
Of course, even then, the world was not all peaceful and carefree.
Reports on climate change have long been ubiquitous in the media, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict was sparked by the Crimean crisis.
Nevertheless, maybe due to my age, everything didn't seem so overloaded with negative headlines in the past.
Climate, war, (corona) crisis - the three overpowering K-words, which are currently covering every mind, no matter how optimistic, are now constantly haunting my head.
Permanent media noise and push notifications popping up on the smartphone never let me forget that the world is in survival mode right now.
A sentence like "Crisis can also be cool", written by the German influencer and musician Fynn Kliemann, is more than noticeable.
And no matter how meant or taken out of context, I just think: Unfortunately no, not at all.
Internal and external states of crisis
We young students in particular are suffering from the current situation.
Unlike in the film, there is no plan B – neither for the earth nor for our future. I think it is more than obvious that feelings of loss of control or even a lack of prospects arise in view of this.
After all, it's almost impossible to imagine one's future without stumbling upon financial worries, global warming, or a potentially even more widespread war.
In addition to these worldly crises, many of us are going through another, far more subtle and barely visible crisis - the so-called "quarter-life crisis".
This is what experts call a mental crisis in the age phase between 21 and 29, which is due to permanent insecurity.
Questions such as "What do I want to do after graduation?" - "Am I making the right decision for my future?" - "Am I developing as I should?" come to the fore and seem to demand answers.
The current crises in the world merge with internal crises and conflicts and sometimes leave us students with the feeling of being overwhelmed.
These diffuse states of crisis among young people can even be put into numbers.
In the trend study “Youth in Germany”, for example, almost half of those surveyed aged 14 to 29 reported that they were stressed.
More than a third feel powerless, a tenth have feelings of helplessness.
So what to do against this wall that sometimes just threatens to crush us?
Active instead of impotent
Contrary to this disorientation and powerlessness, many students seem to know exactly what could help them - and make political demands.
Not only the climate discourse fueled by "Fridays for Future" but also the call for more psychological support are getting louder.
Many of them also have very specific wishes for education policy.
For example, a general way of dealing with stress that is taught in schools could relieve young adolescents in their later (student) everyday life.
Expressing such demands - whether on the street, on paper or elsewhere - also relieves.
If it is not enough to get involved in this way, there are still little everyday tricks to help yourself.
Sometimes it's hard to put down your smartphone.
But it helps a lot not to wait for the next update of the news app.
Social media breaks, where you just pause and stop revealing your insecurities to others, can also help.
Maybe that's not much and is mainly based on self-responsibility.
But it promises one thing: a little peace for your own soul.
Lina von Coburg (22 years old) is a bachelor's student in journalism in Mainz. In addition to her studies, she writes poems, philosophizes about life and thinks about how a prospective journalist can survive.