It's at about this time in life when my peers and I start getting asked The Question: "So, what are you doing after you graduate?"
The lucky ones have solid answers. The internships have all lined up with the major and a connection through Uncle Joe is making the career path look more like a Slip 'n Slide -- just dive in and inertia will take you the rest of the way.
But giving in to the immense societal pressure that drives students to fervently pursue a career is often devastating for members of my generation.
Career vs. life
Should we really have our entire mind-set and all-consuming thoughts focused on what work experience specs will brighten our resumes, or how many straight A's will translate into a Harvard Law School acceptance letter?
Not at the cost of missing the rest of life.
With career advisers, counselors and seminars telling us to design our lives around our careers -- instead of our careers around our lives -- when does the goal become so important that we lose track of the journey?
As a student who has tasted the whirl and frenzy of a Washington, D.C., internship, I can make the simple observation that myopically pursuing a career can lead to a highly successful life in the eyes of peers and society, but it can easily come at the cost of a truly fulfilling life.
In a well-publicized paper, Harvard's admissions office bluntly illustrates the side effects of careerism: "It is common to encounter even the most successful students, who have won all the 'prizes,' stepping back and wondering if it was all worth it. Professionals in their 30s and 40s -- physicians, lawyers, academics, business people and others -- sometimes give the impression that they are dazed survivors of some bewildering lifelong boot camp."
Thankfully, some universities are recognizing this problem.
Please, slow down
The New York Times reported in April on the "slow down" movement that university presidents and deans are quickly embracing. A letter written three years ago by then-Harvard Dean Harry R. Lewis suggesting students lead a less career-centric life is still widely circulated.
"You may balance your life better if you participate in some activities purely for fun, rather than to achieve a leadership role that you hope might be a distinctive credential for postgraduate employment," Lewis wrote.
As the Harvard admissions office paper notes, the appeals of careerism can be tempting: "Stories about the latest twentysomething dot-com multimillionaires, the astronomical salaries for athletes and pop-music stars, and the often staggering compensation packages for CEOs only stimulate the frenzied search for the brass ring. More than ever, students (and their parents) seek to emulate those who win the 'top prizes' and the accompanying disproportionate rewards."
This isn't to say that there's anything wrong with following the colloquial, all-American ideal to "pursue your dreams." But those dreams shouldn't become an obsession that overshadows the more important factors in life. God. Family. Friends. Relationships.
It may do some good for resume-building twenty-somethings to fast-forward 60 years in their lives and imagine sitting in an armchair reminiscing and wondering: "What exactly was the goal in my life?"
It's a great opportunity to decide that now instead of later.
Chris Collins, 20, has just finished his sophomore year at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash. His home is in Seattle.
