Welcome to freshman year. Did you find your classes okay? Did you start work on your resume?

As soon as I entered college, I immediately felt the pressure to start crafting my resume. I researched clubs and organizations to join, volunteering opportunities, honors societies to apply for and anything else I could potentially put on my resume. I requested advice from professors and advisors on how to bulk up my resume, and they all said to take part in what I was passionate about.

The catch is, to build a good resume I have to be passionate toward about thirty different things. I have to find somewhere I can show my passion for leadership, for group work, for volunteering, for interning, for writing, for campus inclusion, for underrepresented populations and for the impoverished, to name a few. The list goes on and on. I can be passionate about whatever I want, as long as it fills the check boxes employers and admissions look for in a resume.

There is a lot of pressure in college to create the perfect resume and we all bend over backwards to fit everything into our already busy schedules.

Monday – classes and club meeting

Tuesday – classes and interning

Wednesday – classes, leadership council and mentorship program

Thursday – classes and volunteering

Friday – classes, interning and club meeting

Saturday – off campus social work

Sunday – club meeting and catch up on homework

Where do we fit in fun anymore during the week? Where is our time to actually find something we are truly passionate about? We are so consumed with filling in the check boxes we think are necessary that we forget to schedule time for ourselves. We fear that if we do not fill out our resume perfectly, we will not get the internship or the job we want.

Though creating a good resume has not all been stressful and time consuming. Many of my experiences in college were brought on by resume building, but have turned out to become wonderful opportunities. Through volunteering, I have met many wonderful people who have changed my outlook on life. Thanks to one of the clubs I am a part of, I was given the opportunity to apply for additional scholarships. One of my internships solidified my career path.

So some advice to freshmen coming into college, yes think about your resume because people put a lot of emphasis on resumes in the job market, but don’t let filling out your resume consume all your time. You’ll burn yourself out. Find a few opportunities you want to pursue and go with them. You may even find a new passion or career path. The rest will work itself out.