I remember the nerves more than anything. Before performing, I would wait for my turn, knowing that in a few minutes I would have to walk onto stage in front of an audience. The lights would come on, I would start performing, and somehow the nerves would disappear. It’s a rare feeling that’s difficult to put into words, and I feel lucky to have found something that lets me experience it so fully. I wasn’t standing backstage thinking about how this might look on a resume one day. I was performing because it made me happy. As I got older, activities I loved began to feel less like hobbies. They became accomplishments, leadership experiences, and things I could add to an application, making even my limited free time feel like something I needed to use productively. Since coming to college, I have started to notice this mindset everywhere in so many conversations I have. So many of the activities we do can somehow become another step toward an internship, career, or future opportunity. There is nothing wrong with wanting our passions to help us succeed, but when did loving something stop feeling like enough of a reason to do it?
When Hobbies Become Experience
During my first few weeks at Bucknell, I was surrounded with plenty of opportunities to get involved: clubs, organizations, volunteer opportunities–basically anything you can think of. I joined organizations because they connected to things I already loved, like writing and singing, but it is hard not to think beyond the activity itself. The same questions sometimes float through my mind: Could I obtain a leadership position from this club? Will this experience help me get an internship? Will it matter when I apply for a job? According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Student Survey, students familiar with skills-based hiring were more likely to include skills gained through classes, internships, and extracurricular experiences on their resumes (Awareness, 2026). The issue isn’t that our hobbies can become experience. The things we love teach us skills. Performing has taught me things I never would have considered when I first stepped on a stage. The issue arises when gaining experience becomes the reason we choose our hobbies over our love for them.
Always Preparing for What Comes Next
For me, high school felt like four years of preparation for something that you’re told will shape your future. College can sometimes feel like the same thing all over again, preparing for whatever comes next. Classes lead to solidifying a major, majors lead to internships, internships lead to jobs, etc. It can feel like a never-ending cycle. We choose the hardest classes for our majors, build resumes for internships, pursue internships for future jobs, and join organizations that might make us stronger applicants. However, when will it be normalized to start choosing classes we enjoy, building resumes that reflect who we are, rather than who we think employers want us to be, and joining organizations simply because we love being part of them? There will always be another application, another position, another opportunity to work toward. At some point, we have to ask ourselves how much of our lives we are willing to miss—and how much of ourselves we are willing to overlook—while preparing for what comes next.
When Ambition Becomes Pressure
I sometimes catch myself wondering whether I am doing enough, even though I have only just begun college. Ambition isn’t the problem. Working hard is great. I want to work hard, gain experience, and eventually build a career I love. What I don’t want is to spend so much time preparing for my future that I turn every interest I have into another accomplishment I need to prove.
Not Everything Has to Lead Somewhere
It’s okay to have parts of our lives that lead us to absolutely nothing, allowing ourselves to just experience pure enjoyment. We should be able to read without feeling the need to track how many books we finish, create something without posting it, or join an activity without jumping right into gaining a leadership role. As a first -year, I know many of the choices I make over the next four years will help shape my future, but I don’t want to spend college constantly asking what every experience can eventually do for me. I hope to graduate, as I’m sure all of us do, with experiences that make my resume stronger, but I also hope to leave with interests that make me happy even if they never make it onto my resume. Maybe that is something I’ll have to keep reminding myself over the next four years: not everything we value needs to prove its value to others.
“Awareness of Skills-Based Hiring Drives Students to Upgrade Resumes.” Default, 2026, https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/trends-and-predictions/awareness-of-skills-based-hiring-drives-students-to-upgrade-resumes. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.