"What are your summer plans?"
As we approach the end of the semester, no doubt everyone from parents, professors, administrators and even fellow peers are nagging you with this question. They expect an answer from a limited group of choices: internship, volunteering, immersion trip, mission abroad. You should be doing something to further your future career, to put something on your resume. You need to be doing something.
Why do we have this mentality? As a junior, this is one of the last summers I have before going off into the "real world." Should I not enjoy my final freedom? American capitalism and our pseudo-meritocracy say no. I should have a five or even ten year plan and be actively working for it. Always. Forever. 'Till death do us part.
What time does this leave for living in the present?
Our society is so focused on "success" (read:money) and moving forward that it leaves no time for leisure and creativity, for works of actual charity (read:not "resume ready"), for time with family.
I spent a semester abroad in Spain (read:hypocrite?) and what most "shocked" me about the culture was their complete disregard of time. Not only is their schedule wildly different from ours, but even time seems to move more slowly. People do not seem like they are rushing places (either physical or idealistically). People go out to dinner (read:10pm) and actually sit and eat and talk for hours, disregarding time or commitments. A local professor told us that if the Spanish had any less work ethic they would be jobless.
And yet, people are happy. People are fulfilled. At least, they seemed so, in comparison to folks back home. And they seem to do just fine.
So, why do we continue to put such enormous pressure on other people -and on ourselves- to always be working and working toward a goal they will never reach because another will have to come after; working toward the mystical unicorn of "success."
What is success? To us, it seems success means earning enormous amounts of money, being married, having 2.5 kids and a dog and a white picket fence. But is this the only way to be "successful"? Does happiness play into the equation at all (whether ours or other people's?)
What happens if I get beat out by the thousands of other internship-hungry 20-somethings applying for the same jobs?Have I failed? Am I a failure? Will I never be successful? Judging by the pressure on me, indeed, my life should be over.
However, that is just not true. I should not be made to feel worthless for not being able to live up to sometimes impossible expectations. Life will go on. Whatever my goals are, I will get there eventually; maybe slower, maybe faster than my counterparts. There is not just one road to success. We are all on our own road, at our own pace, and our destinations are different. So next time the dreaded question inevitably comes up in conversation, remember that you are more than your resume.
