Dear Vickie,
How do I become more interesting without a tragic backstory?
Sincerely,
Samwambam
Dear Samwambam,
I’m gathering that you’re talking about the dreaded CommonApp. College essays are a daunting subject, and they sort of make you question everything about yourself. But not to fret! There are plenty of ways to be interesting, and step one is to figure out who you are. I know that sounds overwhelming, and probably will take a long time to actually, truly understand who you are, but Rome wasn’t built in a day! Figure out what you like to do! Find your sense of self, something especially important in a society like ours, where our lack of free time has become a flex, and scrolling endlessly is the default pastime.
Let go of things, and figure out who you are outside of them! You will constantly become a new version of yourself with each thing you experience, and the more you widen your perspective and open your life to those experiences, the more versions of you there are! And boom. You’re interesting.
XOXO,
Vickie
Dear Vickie,
I’ve been more irritable and moody lately, and I think it comes down to “projects”—some for school and some for personal purposes. I really do love having things to work on, but everything on my agenda nowadays either feels incredibly distant—like I’ll never get any work done no matter how much effort I exert—or stressfully close. The distant projects I get absolutely no pleasure out of, and I’m tired of the close ones always being on my mind. I’m due to meet my friends soon, but even they’re beginning to annoy me because they’re so smart and I’m tired of feeling completely “out of wack” compared to them. What do I do? It’s not like I can just NOT do my work…
Sincerely,
SpongeBob Big Guy Pants
Dear SpongeBob Big Guy Pants,
Yeah, boy, do I get it. With the dreariness of third quarter, everything starts to feel optional. Life becomes such a drag during—personally, March goes at a snail’s pace—this time of year, until spring finally makes it feel like life is worth living. Like I advised Samwambam, sometimes, you need to let go of things to find out what serves you and makes you happy. Part of that means letting go of the dread, and the nagging need to complain (I barely have a leg to stand on with this complaining thing, but do as Vickie says, not as Vickie does 🙂).
These projects you’re talking about, you might have to look a little deeper and see what significance they actually pose to your life, especially the optional ones. Sometimes passion isn’t enough, and taking a step away, and you definitely should if they’re feeling like a chore, can really help.
Things suck sometimes, and as much as advice as I can sit here and dish out, it’s entirely up to you how to deal with them. Sure, if you feel like nothing you do is giving you a reward anymore, you can find a million other dopamine hits to compensate for that, and you can ignore the friends that are annoying but complain in private, and you can stop doing all your work, but is that really going to help at all or is it just going to make you feel worse? Sometimes removing yourself from situations, and in turn removing their influence on you and your feelings, can help you gain all the perspective you need.
XOXO,
Vickie
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