The term "resume-building" implies that we join activities only to add it to a sheet of paper - it suggests that we only do anything in college is just a building block to achieve a spot in medical school or graduate school. It convinces students to only do things in an effort to collect pieces to ultimately create the perfect candidate in a resume.

As pre-medical students, the term is a constant reminder of our impending medical school applications. So, for the four years of our college life, we tend to sign up for more clubs, volunteer opportunities, and clinical internships than we can conceivably handle - all to fill up a sheet of paper with a tremendous list of our "achievements" in size 8 font. But is it worth it?

We already spend most of our waking moments and many moments where we should be asleep, trying to achieve this dream GPA that is as close to 4.0 as possible - don't lie, most of us still (incorrectly) think a B is a "bad grade." And then we spend the rest of our time participating in activities that medical schools "want to see," while we internally hate them. It is basically college applications all over again. Even though this may create one hell of a resume, and you'll look like a prime candidate on paper, what does it really matter if all you did for four years was collect a list of memberships and qualifications rather than live a life of meaningful experiences.

Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with joining medical clubs or volunteering or doing research - in fact, I do many of the same things - but we tend to relinquish hobbies and passions outside of medicine to devote our time solely to "building a resume" for medical school. Art, writing, dancing, sports, and anything that is not related to medicine is put on the back burner, deemed "useless" in terms of career goals. So, not only are we spending four years of our life trying to achieve the "perfect" grade on a meaningless scale, we give ourselves no respite since we don't allow ourselves the enjoyment of our passions.

Not only is this a waste of what should be four years to truly enjoy being ourselves, but it is also absolutely counterintuitive in terms of medical school. We spend so long trying to show medical schools that we're different, but in the effort to do so, we all end up exactly the same since we've given up on the hobbies that made us unique.

"Resume-building," unlike the implication of the term, should not take any extra effort. We should not force ourselves to participate in activities, collecting the building blocks of a resume, if they do not make us happy nor should we give up on passions just because they don't "look good" on a resume. Resumes do not define you; you define your resume. Resumes exist to showcase the types of people we are - that does not take effort. If you do the things you love, be passionate about your commitments and make new experiences, then you'll already have your building blocks at your disposal, with no extra collecting needed, and all you need to do is write them down.