Birthday and Squid Game
- Apr 11
- 2 min read
Warning: the following contains references to Squid Game season 3 - no spoilers are given but the show offers context to the blog
Usually, the birthday blog is centred around my life and reflections on the year that has passed. This year, I want to discuss the essence of humanity - and how it relates.
I recently finished watching Squid Game, one of my favourite shows, after delaying it due to workload. Season 3 has given me a lot of food for thought. The point of the show is to highlight the role money plays in society and how humanity can be stretched and questioned in the most dire of circumstances.
The reason why I want to discuss this now, on my birthday, is because the show reminded me of what matters most. In a world that grows to be increasingly unstable, I find myself feeling more lost and confused over my own role and whether there is any point in continuing. Why keep up to date with the news when it is the same stories? Why bother caring about human rights when there are clear violations and no punishment? Why should we speak out against injustice when it is now becoming the norm, and then arguably justice?
Some people will find this incredibly preposterous - Ishaa, it’s a Netflix show, how can it really impact your views on the world? Maybe it’s the point in my life that I watched it at - Squid Game to me served as a symbol, a shining beacon of hope through Seong Gi-Hun. I forgot what it was like to believe in someone and their principles to the point where their decisions were harmful to their own interests, all because of the premise of the greater good. Gi-Hun represents the individual grappling with the system and how powerless they feel, what action they try to take, and what stand they can ultimately make.
My birthday, of course, warrants self-reflection. And if I had not just finished Squid Game, I would have perhaps written a more ambiguous blog. I am at a point of uncertainty going forward, and so I feel confused about what I should do. Gi-Hun and Squid Game remind me that what matters most is me - my approach to what life throws at me, and what person I determine I am. Choices are incredibly important in Squid Game and in life - you are bound to make some you will regret, but what matters is your intentions as well as your informed views on the world.
I go into the next year of my life with a renewed sense of hope - not in world change that will be enacted in a year, but in the fact that the individual, as Gi-Hun proves, can make a difference, even if it is not the desired outcome. The principles I hold and the person I am are important because I deem them to be crucial in my life decisions.
Here’s to another year. And thank you to Gi-Hun and the Squid Game show for creating work that challenges societal perceptions.
*Photo is owned by the author, all rights reserved 
Comments