A recent run in with one of my favorite professors, Dr. Colonna, turned into a lengthy discussion about each of our experiences out West. In addition to the sun, cities, and arts, we missed the way people in Western states introduced themselves.
It seems that, in Western States, people start with their names and follow with their hobbies, interests, travels, and favorite restaurants. On the East coast, greetings dive right into, “so where do you work, are you going to school, what are your plans for when you graduate?”. Should this Eastern introduction really be normal? When did interests and hobbies become less important than work and school? Occupations are important but they shouldn’t define you.
There's probably not always a divide in the way people on either end of the country introduce themselves, but this conversation sparked a question in my brain: why are we so obsessed with our occupational statuses?
Though we strive to get careers in our fields of interests, careers are still work. We should work afford the things that we love. Working shouldn’t be our sole purpose in life. The scariest part is, in order to become successful or “happy” we must be really freaking miserable first. I realize now, as a Professional Writing Major and Music Industry Minor, I will probably get the same job whether I have a degree or not. Nonetheless, there’s always a chance that I’ll be denied without that piece of paper. This gamble is why I do the whole, honors students while holding down a job and managing my own music and writing, thing.
School and work would be one thing if we simply did our work, had free time to relax afterwards, and knew that it would pay off in the end. Sadly, the work doesn’t end when we get out of class, we have more tedious assignments to complete outside of school. We also don’t want to fall behind socially or financially so we join clubs, sports teams, sororities and fraternities, and pick up extra hours at work. By the end of the day we’re so sleep deprived that we’re physically ill and thinking like zombies. It’s hard to develop a personalities of our own when we spend all day following others’ orders isn’t it?
What makes the insanity of adulting even more crazy is what we get out of it. At the end of it, all we have to show is a good grade on a paper, a little bit of extra money in our bank accounts, or an Instagram picture with a caption that says, “had so much fun with my pledge sisters today”. Even if we do get jobs using our degrees, and many people don’t, we get the satisfaction of saying “I did it”, but what did we do? Did we really improve ourselves or mankind in any way?
If we’re really interested in our fields of study, we should discover things on our own, things that no one else has done or seen before. Students writing the same papers based on the same facts that were discovered centuries ago over and over isn’t helping anyone. It’s just busy work. I guarantee we would learn much more about our fields by experiencing them first hand. We would also excel by giving ourselves a break from studies so that we can actually enjoy them and think clearly, rather than in zombie mode. Entry level jobs are the same way, yes someone needs to do them, but they shouldn’t be our livelihoods! It’s important to have other interests too. If you really do love the sports, clubs, or social groups you’re involved with in school, you should have time to enjoy them! You should also be sure you actually enjoy them rather than getting involved to please others. If outside of school activities are more your thing, they should be your focus. Whatever it is that we love, we need to be able to feel healthy and happy rather than stressed, sleep deprived, and zombified while we do it.
Becoming an adult is about discovering who we really are, not bending over backwards and practically killing ourselves to please someone else. Rather than teaching us to follow formulas, write tedious papers, and spit back facts, schools should provide us with foundational information that we can apply to our fields ourselves. Also, work and school shouldn’t be what defines us, because they’re not who we are; they’re what we feel we must do to survive. I say from now on, instead of jumping right to our occupations, let's introduce ourselves based on what we love and how we feel.
