College starts to get serious at some point.
Your early 20s are a beautifully mad time in your life. In college, you learn an incredible amount about yourself and your aspirations. Everyone experiences college differently. Generally, you begin your college career as a naive freshman more inclined to learn about yourself, independence, friendships and life experiences than about academia, career goals, and your future life.
Then, eventually, you began to gain more perspective on the world and what you're passionate about in life as a second-year student. Now, I am currently in my third year.
I am beginning to experience a phenomenon I refer to as "getting hit with the reality stick."
You are not only trying to decide what you love in life and "what you want to be when you grow up." Now you are truly starting to make those dreams your reality. You take classes that are more relevant to your major and geared more towards your future career; you have experiences that will elevate your resume; you get involved in extracurricular activities and projects that expand your skill set; and you are beginning to seek out internships and jobs that will help you to land your dream position after graduation. It's terrifying.
There will always be someone ahead of you.
As frustrating as a realization as it may be, when you come to terms with the fact that there is most likely someone that has a leg up on you in some regard you can begin to release some pressure from yourself. I am not saying that there is less of a reason to do your own personal best. That should always be the goal. Rather, to celebrate your own unique attributes and accomplishments rather than comparing them to other individuals.
Theodore Roosevelt said it best, "comparison is the thief of joy."
If you are constantly scrolling through social media and getting caught up in other's successes, you need to release that habit. Social media is a platform literally designed for individuals to record some of their most impressive moments in life. If everyone posted reality then posts would be more like "I landed the internship of my dreams! ... after being rejected by seven other companies, spending an entire month editing my resume, going several nights on two hours of sleep or less, and by finally getting my GPA up after I tanked that class freshman year." That doesn't sound quite as brag-worthy as most of the posts you may see. Furthermore, the point of a resume is to make yourself sound marketable to an employer. So, once again, comparing your resume to another person's is a waste of your time. It doesn't matter what they have in their career repertoire. The chances are they are trying to make themselves seem like a far better candidate on paper than they are in reality. You should pride yourself on what you truly can bring to the table to a potential employer.
