Work hard, play hard. We've all heard this maxim countless times, but is it the best way to live our lives? In this modern age of positive psychology and emphasis on following your passion the old Dartmouth mantra is becoming obsolete. At least, it needs some qualification.
Finding a balance is essential for happiness, and one cannot find that balance if one insists on going to the extremes in these aspects of life. But how does one find balance? With nothing to guide them but vague ideas designed to boost their egos, Dartmouth students look for external guidance by which to satisfy their material motivations. This leads them to believe that there is a single ideal that they must achieve in order to be happy, some elusive formula for achieving life balance. There's not.
That is one of the most important lessons I've learned at Dartmouth. No one can tell you how to be happy, be a social butterfly, land that awesome internship and graduate Phi Beta Kappa. And it isn't because people don't want to share their secrets. It's because there is no secret. You just do what you love to do. For some people that means spending countless hours raising funds for a cause you care about instead of perfecting that essay due the next day. For others that means throwing yourself into mastering a subject that fascinates you rather than raging all weekend, every weekend. Not everyone's perfect balance will look the same, and it shouldn't. You might not be the all-star you were in high school, but you know what? That all-star was kind of boring. Like it or not, we all have unique strengths and weaknesses, and individual passions. That's what allows the world to function. Then why do the intelligent people on this campus seem to chase after a generic model of how to most effectively allocate their time that theoretically works for everyone and so rationally doesn't work for anyone?
I blame it on the college admissions process. Or, at least, on the principles and mindset that fuel that process and much of the formal education we receive. We are experts at understanding and mastering a system. That's what got us here. We like having goals and accomplishing them. But in college, there is a much broader range of goals from which to choose. While some find this liberating, a lot of people panic. Without a single right answer, it can be difficult for any person to figure out what works. Most people aren't even asking the right question. For them, the best answer is the most easily available answer the one that requires the least amount of introspection and the greatest number of prescribed steps. Instead of asking what works for them they latch onto the most certain path toward satisfying other people's expectations for them. Whether it be making "work hard, play hard" work for them or landing a career that provides financial superiority and proves their intelligence, Dartmouth students tend to lock themselves into rat races that are not conducive to their personal well-being.
How students plan to achieve these status symbols more or less determines how they approach their campus lives. And this is where the problem lies. Instead of testing out activities and classes that genuinely interest them, too many Dartmouth students opt to continue the resume-building of their high school days. They engage in activities they think look most impressive and classes that will boost their GPAs or set them on impressive career paths. As a result, too many students don't derive any pleasure from the activities in which they spend the majority of their time. This preoccupation with status is the root of the life imbalance at Dartmouth.
Still in the mindset of mastering the standardized tests that helped get us into this school, Dartmouth students tend to pursue an idealized, one-size-fits-all model for life management in hopes of discovering and mastering some secret formula for happiness and success. This hope is misplaced.
Finding your most satisfying life balance requires you to realize that the only person living your life is you.
