I think we all know the type. The person who has fallen victim to the cultural epidemic we are facing that tells us not caring about anything is the one true way to be cool. They don't care about school, cannot find something to be passionate about, and purposefully stay detached from anything that could involve the slightest bit of emotions. The people who would rather sit out then get involved in a school event, because, "Ugh, that's so lame." On the list of trends I don't understand, indifference is right up there with sneaker wedges and graphic tees with "love" or "chic" printed across the chest.

To be completely honest, I can understand the mentality to a certain extent. Staying detached from something, or someone, emotionally isn't always a bad idea. Especially in college, it is probably a better idea than throwing yourself into a relationship right from the start (not to get into a conversation about hook-up culture. I think we all know it's a real thing and there is nothing I can say that hasn't been said before). Protecting yourself emotionally isn't bad. Personally, I've never been a particularly emotional person, so I can understand being hesitant and slightly detached from relationships, at first.

The main thing I don't understand is not caring about school. It is something you can control every aspect of and that will have a huge impact on your life. I cannot even begin to fathom how people find it in themselves to not care or try. At this point, so many people other than myself have helped me get to the point I'm at, that I would feel terrible blowing it off. It feels extremely disrespectful to disregard everything that people have done for you, simply because you believe people will think you are cooler if you don't care about class. Senior year of high school, it might be fine to stop trying for a while, but when you get to a school that makes you consider selling kidneys to pay for your tuition, I think maybe you should start caring.

I am not sure what caused this trend, but it does seem to be generational. I think a lot of it stems from the amount of pressure that is on young adults to succeed in everything they try. As much as older generations want to deny it, people my age genuinely feel that we are expected to be good at everything. We have to get into a good college and get straight As, but we also have to be in five clubs, do community service, and start thinking about grad school three weeks into freshman year. There is no way that all of that is possible (if it is, and there is someone currently doing all of those things without constant mental breakdowns, please let me know). It might be that some people stray towards indifference because it makes it easier to deal with things when they don't succeed. If you never cared about something in the first place, when it doesn't work out for you, maybe it's easier to just blow it off with, "I don't care, it wasn't a big deal."

At the end of the day, though, it's cool to be passionate about something. Whether it's school or an extracurricular you are involved in, there is no better feeling than waking up genuinely excited for something you get to do that day. Yeah, it might be harder to deal with failure if you were one hundred percent invested in something, but what about when something you really worked for works out? It is so rewarding to work hard for something, to really care about it and have it work out perfectly. That is not a feeling you get when you blow something off and kind of try because you kind of care.

Maybe I am missing something big, but apathy is something I don't think I will ever understand. I would much rather be too invested in something and try too hard than miss out on amazing opportunities because I was too cool to care.