Meg Jay has paid attention to the problem of the empathy gap between present and future selves in her speech “Essential Questions to Ask Your Future Self” (https://www.ted.com/talks/meg_jay_essential_questions_to_ask_your_future_self?language=en#t-130420). The video was filmed with the support of media organization “TED” in May 2021, and due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the location was the speaker’s office. The topic discussed in the video appeared to be relevant to me, as an adolescent, I frequently reflect on my future path.
Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist, who specializes in adolescents. Practicing for more than 20 years, she can combine both scientific theories and cases for her work. The current speech implies observing the problem from a humanistic perspective, which helps to dive into the thought of adolescents. She marks the empathy gap between present and future selves (Jay, 2021). In order to illustrate it, the speaker refers to the studies on adolescents’ perception of their future, conducted by Mackavey, Malley, and Stewart. Therefore, Meg Jay proposes essential questions for contemplating plans for adult life: “What do I look like, where do I live, what do I do for work?” (3:34). On the basis of these reflections, the speaker offers to continue thinking and return to the current moment. “How is everything I think I want going to fit?” or “What does all this mean about what I need to be doing now?” are the questions for the present selves (Jay, 2021, 05:21). Such an inner conversation helps adolescents to connect to their future images and realize their ambitions.
In general, the speech was insightful for me, as it contained a range of wise concepts, which I will use for defining my aims and ways of pursuing them. In addition, as I have already mentioned, now I spend much time reflecting on my future path, so the video was relevant for me. Apart from this, one of the speaker’s phrases appeared to be especially memorable for me. Meg Jay (2021) claims: “The good news is because there are no right answers, there are no wrong answers. There are only your answers” (1:39). In case I have a chance to conversate with her, I would ask her how to act in case of uncertainty and lack of confidence in the future.
Reference
Jay, M. (2021). Essential questions to ask your future self [Video]. TED. Web.