We are told to not strive for perfection, but passion. However, we aren't judged by passion, but how close we flew to perfection.
Now that I am a college senior, I have been getting a lot of advice from professors and elders alike on how to succeed in the adult world. The other day I was sitting in one of my courses and my professor said something that really stuck out to me.
"Your generation is so focused on being perfect, that you lose sight of what is really important."
Stop trying to be perfect, that extra point doesn't matter, one day you will look back and not remember if you got a B or an A on an assignment. What matters is that you learned something.
At the time, this point really resonated with me. I thought, my professor is right, what's the point of all this stress? But then I also thought, WHY do we feel like we need to be perfect?
The people who tell us to not be perfect are the ones setting the unrealistic expectations.
When I started to ponder the question of WHY we all feel this way, the answer became pretty clear. We are expected to have a job, be in many organizations, have leadership roles, have a great internship, volunteer, get high grades, all while living under the pressures of the social media world. Just the other day I heard from a fellow student who had a 3.6 GPA, but was turned down for an internship because it wasn't the highest. For this generation, that one point CAN make a difference on things like GPA, which can affect internships, which can affect jobs, etc.
While the phrase "don't sweat the small stuff" may sound great, it's not most young people's reality.
Sweating the small stuff is the type of thing that is preached to set us apart from others. At another point in this class, my professor told us, "You are in this class because you are a senior, which means adulthood is around the corner. It's time to stop sleeping in, and going out with your friends. Get up early and exercise, eat well, make your grades a priority, and make yourself a well-rounded person. It's the little things that count."
It is impossible for young people to not strive for perfection.
So we need to go above and beyond to make it in the world, but not worry about being perfect? An A or B doesn't matter, but getting into that internship does? Do not be too hard on yourself, but if you aren't as fit and healthy as the people on your social media feed, then you need to work harder on being a well-rounded person?
We are told to not strive for perfection, but passion. However, we aren't judged by passion, but how close we flew to perfection.
The expectations of those critiquing this generation are what causes the so-called "perfection disease."
It is the perfect example of the saying, "When you a point a finger, there are three pointing back at you."
