believe me, you’re in a good place

Hey Askastudent,

How can I be an interesting person? It’s just that in life sci, with all the studying, I feel that I’m programmed to just spit out numbers and facts with no personality. I’ve never felt so generic. Oh, and I’m familiar with the cliche, “Go join a hobby. or sport.” I’ve been there and done that and besides getting an 8-pack* it hasn’t done much for me. The reason I ask you, is a given, You’re interesting and somehow, can somehow make talkng/writing about the most administrative stuff like majors, course selection and rosi seem intriguing/funny . You put a spin on things. How do you do it? Okay, enough flattering.

Wow wow wow wow… where do I start???

Ok, so the last thing I would do is tell you to join a club or something like that. Obviously that has nothing to do with your situation, because what you’re describing is nothing short of an existential crisis. This, in my opinion, is great, because it proves that you ARE an interesting person, one that can reflect on his/her own life and say ?this sucks! There’s got to be more to it than this…’

So the first step is to acknowledge that what you are experiencing is an important, dare I say pivotal stage in your growing as a human. And the thing is not a lot of people have that recognition at such an early point in time. That’s why so many 50-year-olds take up Yoga. You’re actually having your mid-life crisis right now! Think about how much time you’re saving!

Good. Now what you need to do is think. And I’m not talking just your average “what course should I take next year/ I need to get a summer job” type deliberation. No, this calls for some serious contemplation. But that’s the most tricky part, because it’s entirely up to you. I know this sounds like sh!t advice but hang on there. There’s a multitude of stuff you can think about, and relentless self-inquiry can also lead to a self-destructive cycle. And I’m not suggesting that at all.

What I would do, and actually did at a point in my life when I was facing the same questions, is try to find out what I liked. Simple as that. What makes you happy? What sparks your intrigue? What is the thing that, time and money permitting, you could devote your whole life to? Music? Travelling? Community theatre? Starting your own business? I dunno, there are endless possibilities. Check it out; write it on a piece of paper or something. The reason I’m giving you this apparently tacky-yanked-it-out-of-a-self-help-book advice is because there’s obviously some kind of dissonance between your schoolwork and what you actually want to do with your life. This very common clash between what you’re doing and what you want to do has led you to the erroneous conclusion that you’re not an interesting person. And what’s important is not to equate a difficulty in your life, as great as it may be, with some inherent character flaw.

The hard thing now is to figure out how to achieve your goals, and how your current path in life can support/facilitate the stuff on that list of yours. You may not even be 100% sure what your goals are at this stage, and that’s totally cool. I imagine there’s a lot of pressure from parents and friends and society and whatever. Don’t go through this alone. Consult with people you care about and whose opinion you appreciate. Go to your registrar or to student services on campus. But the one thing you can’t do (this is just my take on it, you can do whatever the hell you want) is shrug it off. Your psyche is signalling that you need to address this issue, so I wouldn’t ignore that intuition.

I don’t know if this was helpful in any way, but I hope that you at least recognize the fact that you are going through a meaningful experience, that could end up having an extremely positive effect on your life. Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,

askastudent