The Tartan: It has become a huge deal to not care. Caring has become a bad thing to do. “Why do you care so much?” “Why are you so obsessed with this?” “It’s not that deep.” But for EdBoard, it is that deep. Here at EdBoard, we care. We are attached. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. As a student at Carnegie Mellon University, you’re (ideally) studying something that you are deeply passionate about. So why is it that we are not confronted with excitement and passion everywhere on campus? Feelings of nonchalance are the stasis for so many, what do we lose when we live life without caring?
3 comments:
I like the heart of this article, that having passion for things is important, and I have never really understood the narrative that being really into something is lame, and seemingly having no opinions about anything is the platonic ideal of a cool person. I do think there has been a shift in this in recent years, because at least in the spheres I frequent (which to be fair might just be echo bubbles full of theater enthusiasts) people tend to appreciate others who have deep interests in things. But on the other end of that spectrum, I do often find myself caring a little too deeply about everything, leading to overthinking and just general anxiety. So there is a time and place for the thought of ‘it's not that deep’ when I need to just take a breath and remember that every assignment/quiz/test is not the end all be all of my worth as a human being.
Ever since coming here, I’ve realized how much I judge. In my high school, however, I was considered one of few students who actually embraced their passions outside of more “lucrative” topics, like business, finance, law, and the medical industry. The pressure of society to be “nonchalant” has taken a toll on me since coming here. It’s something I’m actively working on, and it’s good to know that within a school that heavily focuses on STEAM majors, that I’m not the only one who feels this way. There is also a huge pressure to immediately excel in what you’re studying here, which is not the point. Especially in a design major, there’s a pressure to invent new ideas and make sure your outcome is perfect, with no flaws. For myself, I’ve been focusing on making sure I try NEW things and fail proudly, not always sticking to what I’m used to. Reading this article was like a breath of fresh air.
I have always thought that this sort of trend of acting like you don’t care is doing nothing but harm to people. Let people really show their emotions because to someone it really is that deep. Passion provides so much joy in someone’s life and no one should be pressured into pretending like they don’t care about it to conform to weird new societal expectations. Passion is something that should be strived for and celebrated when someone finds what their passion is. I really agree with the message of this article, it is that deep and the way a person is on the outside should reflect how they feel on the inside, no more of this expectation of nonchalance. I hope more people try to move past the fear of being seen as too much with this sort of thing. No one is “that cool” or “too cool” to act like they care, we’re all just people at the end of the day and how little you pretend to care about something shouldn’t matter.
Post a Comment