Sometimes I look around myself and I feel completely useless. I work hard in my classes and am thoroughly enjoying the life I have created for myself at UR, but a lot of the time I begin to doubt my life and how I choose to use my time.
As I look at and interact with my UR peers, it seems that everyone is trying to make a huge contribution to some aspect of the world. Seemingly everyone is conducting some revolutionary genetics research or devoting their summers and energies to move to an isolated village in Africa to help underprivileged children learn how to read. I admire these people for their ambition and dedication, but it ridiculously intimidates and overawes me. Am I supposed to be changing the world at 19?
In high school, it seemed – and probably was – so important to pad our rsums. The goal was to get into the best college we could by trying to get overly involved and make some huge and impressive accomplishment before the age of 18.
Now, no one is judging us on how many activities we involve ourselves in.?There is no admissions committee deciding whether my being an editor of the Campus Times is enough to deem me worthy of success in life. I do it because I found that I enjoyed it. People become leaders in clubs or groups at college because they realized that they have a real passion for it. That is what college is all about: self-discovery.
College shouldn’t be about padding a rsum, even though people make it seem that way a lot of the time. As trite as it sounds, college is the absolute perfect time in your life to discover who you actually are and who you want to become. You will never have this much freedom or as many options as you have now.
Keep things in perspective – we go to a university filled with extremely high achievers and interesting and intelligent people. When everyone is so ambitious and driven, it’s hard to stand out – but you don’t have to. You don’t need to do some fancy-looking research because everyone else seems to be doing it.
We hear about a student helping to conduct groundbreaking cancer research at Strong and someone else teaching elementary school kids how to read. There are those students who travel to African countries and try to make a global difference and others who take on renowned internships in the government or at distinguished law firms. While these accomplishments are so impressive and deserve praise, making a difference doesn’t have to be extravagant, and having a worthwhile life doesn’t need to be because of some grandiose gesture to affect the world.
What you choose to do in your life doesn’t need to impress the world, as long as it makes your life important and worthwhile for you. Right now, I get a whole lot of satisfaction devoting my time to making sure the Campus Times is free of grammar and spelling mistakes and making up cool-looking dances for my dance group. It may not be changing the world, but I know some people appreciate it, and that’s all that matters.
Friedlander is a member of the class of 2010.
