Oh my goodness, I'm so sad that I've discovered these Reddit threads.
What are the advices that people are giving each other?
They're all conflicting.
I'm so confused.
And welcome back to another episode of The Pop Out.
Today we're talking about extracurricular activities and what kind of extracurricular
activity you should do.
I didn't realize, because I never really bothered to look around, but I didn't realize that
there were so many people who had opinions on what to do and what not to do, and giving
all this advice.
We need to clear some of this stuff up, because I think there's nuance here, and I think
people are not being careful about the kind of advice they're giving, which is unfortunate.
So let's talk a little bit about extracurricular activities, but I'm going to do it a little
bit differently than just going straight into what you should be doing.
I think from what I've been seeing, I'm guessing that the problem is that people are not focusing
on the right thing.
They're focusing on the nitty-gritty of should you follow your interests and passions?
Should you do passion projects?
Should you be proactive?
How important are leadership positions and so on?
I think people are focused on the wrong thing.
I think we need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
And to do that, I want to begin by saying a few things about what colleges are generally
looking for.
Again, with anything I say here, what combination of these things colleges want, how much a
particular college values one of these factors, it depends.
It depends on the college.
It depends on what they decide is the thing that they are going to pay most attention
to.
But generally, most colleges, at least the most competitive ones, are looking for some
combination of the following.
One, they're looking for students who have a good sense of who they are.
What I mean by this is they're looking for students who know what drives them, know what
interests them, what purpose their life has.
What makes their life purposeful?
What is it that they're ultimately going for in accomplishing a good life?
They also have a good sense of what they're actually good at, as well as areas of weaknesses,
things where they might need assistance from others.
Basically, they just want a student who has a good idea of the kind of person that they
are, an honest assessment of themselves, one that is not sugarcoating things, one that
is not over-exaggerating their strengths, none of this stuff.
But they have a good sense of who they are.
They have a good sense of what they're about.
But that requires a deeper kind of reflection, this ability to kind of reflect on their own
life and where they would like their life to go.
What else is a college looking for?
Number two, I would say they're also looking for somebody who does not merely think or
feel.
They're not just in their head or in their feelings about whatever they care about, but
they actually act on it.
They do something about it.
You're doing something tangible, physically, putting it to action.
It's not enough to just simply care about the endangered species in your local neighborhood.
The question is, are you doing something about it?
Because if you're just sitting back and watching others do stuff, or you're just talking about
it, but you're not being about it, you're not acting on it, that's going to raise a
lot of red flags.
What colleges are looking for is somebody who not just talks a big talk, but actually
walks the walk.
This is truly what you're about, and the way to prove it is by doing stuff.
Third, colleges are looking for someone who acts purposefully.
What I mean by that is asking yourself, is this the right thing to do?
Is it the right way to do it?
Is this the way to actually make an impact?
How do I know?
Am I reflecting on the way I'm doing what I'm doing, or what goals I'm trying to accomplish?
Am I reflecting on how to improve in accomplishing the goals I'm trying to accomplish?
Are you the kind of person who is doing this sort of, not just doing stuff mindlessly,
but doing it much more thoughtfully, doing it with a sense of purpose, a sense of awareness
of what you're doing and why you're doing it, and how it is that you're going about
doing the things that you're doing, whatever the activity might be.
Fourth, I think colleges are also looking for someone who learns from their experience.
Can you demonstrate this kind of growth?
Am I learning the right lessons?
For instance, if there was a conflict with a fellow volunteer, how did I resolve it?
What did I do terribly?
What can I know?
What did I learn about myself?
What did I learn that I need to work on moving forward?
Is there something that I would do differently going forward?
How can I use this experience and apply it to other areas of my life?
If you experience something in one club, the question is, am I taking that lesson and actually
applying it to my life, or am I just, again, just experiencing things mindlessly without
really giving much thought as to what my experience has been and what I have gained from it and
have grown from it?
Additionally, colleges are looking for, this is number five, colleges are looking for someone
who cares for others and are not just about themselves, because let's be honest, who wants
to be with a selfish prick?
Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that you have some big global picture and you want
to create world peace or anything like that.
It just means that you are not just about yourself.
You're not a self-interested and a self-absorbed, petty kind of person.
You actually have some degree of care and concern for the people around you.
It could be more immediate circles, like your local community.
It could be family.
It could be friends.
It could be the world at large.
But you just want to show in some ways that you're not somebody who is only thinking about
themselves and whether or not you yourself succeed in whatever way that you consider
to be success.
Number six, so colleges also look for someone who can see the bigger picture.
Oftentimes students tend to be absorbed in their own little world.
This is not to be unexpected.
A lot of students only have a limited set of experiences and often it's limited to their
family, their community.
Some who are lucky enough to have the money and the time may have been able to experience
a lot more going to different places around the world and seeing how things operate differently.
But by bigger picture, it doesn't have to be, again, globally.
But the idea is that you are thinking beyond your immediate circle, immediate thing that
you're exposed to.
In other words, you're showing the ability to, how do you say this, engage with the larger
world and see yourself as part of a larger world, not just simply as your world is the
only thing that matters.
And finally, colleges, as you might think anywhere else, like a job or anywhere else
where people need to rely on you or want to invest in you to make sure you get to where
you claim you want to go, the question then becomes, are you committed?
So finally, colleges are going to be looking for somebody who is dedicated.
The questions here to ask are questions like, am I giving this activity all that I can give
or am I half-assing it?
Am I committed through the whole process or do I give up at some point?
Do I just throw the towel in when it becomes difficult?
Or am I somebody who others can rely on, others can lean on and know that I am a mainstay,
I'm not just wishy-washy.
I don't say that I'm going to do one thing, but never end up doing it.
So are you a reliable, are you a committed person?
Okay.
So these are the...
So I'm pointing this out because this is kind of like the bigger picture that we need to
understand, right?
Again, the application on the whole is trying to demonstrate all these things.
And extracurriculars are just one aspect of it.
Extracurriculars are just, again, pieces to a bigger picture to kind of paint the kind
of person that you are, right?
So if you're thinking about what kind of extracurriculars activities I should do, and if you're seeing
this bigger picture of the kind of person that they're looking for, then the way to
approach extracurricular activities would be to figure out how can I not only demonstrate
that I'm this kind of person, but do so genuinely.
I mean, we talked about this, right?
On these personal statements, one of the things I am able to detect right away is when there's
kind of like a false sense of self, right?
When somebody has a mask on and is trying to pretend to be somebody that they're not,
right?
At some point, you're going to have to face the reality that if you're not this kind of
person, then it might be the thing to start with.
It might be the first place to start and figure out what to work on.
Because if you're not, for instance, committed, if you're not reliable, you're wishy washy,
that's going to be an issue.
I mean, that's not going to be an issue just for college.
That's going to be an issue for the rest of your life, in relationships, at jobs, right?
If people can't rely on you, if you are constantly skipping out on stuff, that's going to be
an issue.
If you're somebody who is only thinking about themselves, that's going to be a problem,
not just for college, but long after, right?
If you're somebody who doesn't learn from your experience, you're not going to be growing,
you're not going to be maturing, that's going to be a problem again for the rest of your
life, right?
These are not issues that are just simply for college application, in other words, right?
These are all just general character traits that you might think anybody in society might
really want from somebody they have to engage with, whether it's in the workplace, whether
it's in a relationship, right?
It's just good to have these qualities, period, right?
This is, I think, these kind of things that I just listed out as things that a college
is looking for.
This is basically like looking for somebody who is moving in the direction of being a
mature person, like somebody that is mature, somebody who is good, at least in some loose
sense, right?
Somebody that you would enjoy spending time with, somebody you would want to develop a
relationship with, somebody that you can trust, right?
These are the kinds of things that colleges are often looking for.
Colleges are not necessarily looking for anything special in that sense, right?
I think a lot of the advices I've seen online have been advice on, you should do X, Y,
and Z to show that you have such these leadership skills and you're amazing and doing this or
that, or you're better than everyone else, or something or another, like some sort of
competition, demonstrate that you can handle competition and all this, right?
It's like, look, no, no, no, no, no.
They want to see a real person.
And they want to see a real person that it's clear that this is what you're really about,
right?
And the extracurriculars are merely there to reflect a real person there.
So you could try to tailor your extracurriculars all you want.
I'm going to tell you right now, right, that it's not going to look very good if you try
to tailor it in a specific way, because at the end of the day, what you're doing as you're
tailoring your extracurriculars, you're looking like the kind of person who keeps their mask
on, right?
That's what you're doing.
That's what tailoring a set of extracurricular activities would look like, okay?
It would be you being calculating and trying to figure out how to present yourself.
And if you're calculating and how to present yourself, you're not being genuine.
You're not being authentic, okay?
So look, I'm going to give you a different approach to thinking about what kind of activities
you should do.
I personally recommend, so if you are already in like 10th, 11th grade in high school, like,
oh, this might be a little bit late, but get started at some point is better than nothing,
right?
But ideally, you would be doing this sort of reflection that I'm going to suggest.
You should be asking yourself these questions at a fairly early age, right?
Ideally, if you haven't been prompted by people around you, I would encourage you to get started
or encourage others to get started as early as like sixth, seventh grade.
I think as early as then, you could actually do a lot of this reflecting and then continue
that process.
And it'll probably, your answers to this stuff will probably change, and this is why people
change activities and so on, which is completely understandable, okay?
So what kind of reflections am I suggesting that you do, okay?
Before you figure out what specific activity you want to do, you're going to have to first
start with yourself.
You need to first start with who you are, what you're about, okay?
So the first question you need to ask yourself is, what actually matters to me?
And this is actually a very difficult question, but if you sit with yourself long enough and
reflect on your life experience, then the answers should slowly start surfacing to the
top, right?
What matters to me is a very broad question.
If it helps, you could think of it as what moves me, right?
Whether emotionally or what moves me motivates me to act, what gets me excited, what brings
me joy, what would I do if I just had all the time in the world, I could do whatever
I want to, okay?
Now here we already run into problem one, okay?
What do I mean by that?
What if what matters to you is playing video games and watching YouTube videos all day,
right?
Or TV, like Netflix all day.
If that's what matters to you, right?
That's what matters to you.
I think the work shouldn't be, let's try to cover it up and not let colleges know.
The question you should ask yourself is, why does this matter so much to me?
Why does it matter so much to me that I get three hours of video game time a day, right?
It could be for a good reason.
I'm not going to lie, right?
It could be that in like gaming scenarios, you are engaging with people from around the
world and you find the conversations while you're playing these games just interesting.
You've developed friendships over it, right?
There's something meaningful for you and that's great.
Other times it could be an escape from reality.
It could be like, oh, my man, my life sucks.
I'm just having a horrible day.
And the way to zone that out is by playing video games, okay?
The why here matters more than the what, right?
What matters to you doesn't matter as much as why it matters to you.
And that's really what you need to get at.
Why does it matter to you?
Because it's going to help you address what is really at the heart of why it is that you're
drawn to the things that you're drawn to.
That's the question you're going to have to be able to answer, all right?
So look, if you play video games all day, that's fine.
Well, I mean, I wouldn't say it's fine.
I mean, you need to worry about academics and other things.
But if you're playing a lot of video games, the question you should ask is not like, oh,
man, I play a lot of video games.
It should be, why do I play a lot of video games?
What is it doing for me?
Why does it matter to me?
The why it matters to me could help open up doors for figuring out other things that actually
matter to you.
Because what I'm guessing is that whatever is underlying the reason for doing what you're
doing already, what excites you, what gets you going, whatever that is, it's transferable
to other activities.
It doesn't have to necessarily be video games.
That's just how people are wired.
It's like there's something about an activity that is meaningful, and it might be the activity
that is really, really, really exciting.
But why it is so exciting for you, the deeper question should help you see that it could
be other activities as well.
But the first step is to figure out what that is.
So I would begin from a place of no judgment.
It should just be an exploratory exercise of trying to figure out, look, this is what
matters to me.
This is what moves me.
This is where my passions and interests lie.
And this is why.
The why here is going to be important for you to figure out.
Why does this matter to me?
Once you figured out that, once you figured out, look, what are these things that really
drive me?
The second question to ask then is, how do I then fit into this larger world?
Given my interests, given what it is that drives me, what I'm about, it could be helping
other people.
It could be new technological innovations.
It could be working in teams, group activities of some kind.
It just matter a lot to you.
It could be doing something fun physically with your body, like dancing or sports or
something.
Whatever it is that matters to you and whatever the reason for it mattering to you, the next
question you need to ask is, how does that, how does my being this way, how does that
fit into the larger world around me?
What is my role?
What is my place in this larger world?
The reason I like to start off with these two questions is the following.
If it's something that really matters to you, you will be motivated to be better at it.
You will get better at... I honestly believe that in most things in life, there might be
certain things that you just happen to be, to catch on to easily.
I think with most things in life, what we've learned about people is that they're able
to learn.
What motivates people to learn is that they need that spark.
It needs to overlap with something that actually gives them life, gives them that energy from
within, to activate them.
If you find what matters to you, you will invest the time and energy to get better at
it.
Here's the thing.
Just because you like something and you get really good at it, doesn't mean it's actually
contributing to anything in both yourself and in the world.
You need to then ask yourself, what does that have to do with my part in the larger world
around me?
It doesn't have to be, again, a global community.
It could be a very local one.
It could be within the family.
It could be within a group of friends.
The point is this.
You got to start asking yourself, how do I fit into this world given that this is what
I'm really about?
If this is what matters to me, what does that say about the role I should play in the larger
world?
Again, here I don't want you to focus too hard on, or at all honestly, on what colleges
are looking for and whether it's a leadership position or anything.
I want you to just think, look, where is my place in the larger world?
Then once you do that, you have a sense of, oh, this is the kind of place that I... This
is the kind of role that makes sense for me.
Then the next question becomes, look, what specific activities fit in with what matters
to me and also how I fit into this larger world?
What kind of activities would make sense?
Notice up to this point, I haven't been pointing out any objectively better activities or not.
I've only been pointing to good fits for you, whatever that is for you.
What is an actual good fit for you?
This is, I think, where a lot of students kind of get tripped up because there's so
much emphasis on needing to be a leader, needing to win awards and yada, yada, yada, that I
think a lot of students start to think, look, I need to have an activity that I really like,
I'm passionate about.
Okay, I got it.
I'm going to work hard at it.
I'm going to get good at it.
Then I'm going to be a leader in it by becoming the president of a club.
This is not what I'm telling you.
Actually, I'm telling you something very, very different.
I'm telling you, you got to ask yourself, what's a good fit for you?
What's the specific set of activities, roles within the larger community that makes sense
for you and that might not be a leader in any traditional sense?
Let me give you some examples.
I've worked with students who are extremely team oriented.
They do not need to receive credit.
They do not need to be the figurehead or spearhead anything.
They do not need to be the one to necessarily start something, but they are very good and
they very much enjoy being able to bring people together to accomplish goals.
They are the glue to a society, to a community.
They're the glue.
They're the one, they're like the focal point that is able to get other people around them.
They're not the ones who are delegating work at all.
Their role in their community is to bring people together so that they are working together
for a common goal.
They're not necessarily the ones who have started a project.
They're just the ones that do a critical job in making sure that project comes to completion.
That's what they're good at.
That's what they love doing.
They love being able to work behind the scenes and then seeing things come together so that
they're able to finish their collective goal.
Others might be the kind of person who needs to work alone.
They're not the kind of person who works well in teams.
They like to be left alone.
They love exercising creativity and have a hard time if they have to collaborate with
other people.
It could be really difficult.
They understand this about themselves and they understand the need to collaborate sometimes.
They will sometimes do collaborating, but majority of the time they'll spend on their
own exercising their own creativity and understand that that's the kind of activity that works
best for them.
They're not very good at working collectively as a team.
Some people are just better at delegating.
Maybe they're a big picture kind of person and they enjoy delegating.
Right here, when people are starting to talk about leadership and having roles and things
like that, that you have a title associated with it, the title will come, but the right
title will only come if you actually take a moment to think about what actually fits
your sort of given skill set and your passions and how that fits in with the particular activity
that you're considering.
Okay?
So, it's something to really kind of take a moment to reflect on and take note of.
Next, I think, look, whatever the activity is, you want to always bring it back to this
bigger question of how do I fit into this larger world?
And it also means that you need to kind of bring it back to how it fits in with your
specific larger world.
What I mean by that is, before I said, look, how do you fit into this larger world as in
part of your community or in your family or in the world?
But there's a separate question of, look, you're doing all these activities, you're
good at it and you enjoy it.
This is the kind of person you are, you've demonstrated it in the kind of activities
you do.
But again, if colleges are looking for people who are thoughtful in what they're doing,
you're not just doing these activities mindlessly.
You're not just joining stuff because somebody told you you would be good at it or you're
just not following the crowd and just doing whatever.
What you should be doing is you should be doing these activities with a kind of thoughtfulness
about the bigger picture for you.
What do I mean by that?
I'm talking about your school, educational goals, your career goals, your personal goals,
your school goals.
Does the activity have something to do with the kind of person that you want to be?
Does it have something to do with what kind of career you want to eventually build?
Does it have to do with any skillset that you're wanting to employ later on in life?
Some people are family people and they're like, look, all this stuff about career and
school and all that, this is all well and good and I want to make an impact on my community,
but I'm so big on family that that's where I always want to start.
So a lot of these activities, I'm thinking with the bigger picture of how can I be the
best kind of parent going forward or like a best kind of family person and caring for
loved ones.
This is the kind of skillset I want to develop, somebody who is reliable in these ways and
who has knowledge of certain areas so that they could be a blessing to the people around
them, closest to them.
Whatever that is, you should have a sense of why you're doing all the things that you're
doing.
That you're not just doing it just to do it because you enjoy it.
You're not doing it because you realize that it's a good fit for you.
You're not just doing it because you could see that it does something, you're playing
a part in this larger world, but you're doing it for yourself as well.
You're doing it for yourself.
This is not to be confused with being selfish and thinking about yourself only or self-interested
and being only thinking about yourself.
This means that when you do the things that you do, you're just not doing it without some
clear directions, like for yourself.
You're giving yourself a clear path for the kind of direction you want to go.
Next thing, again, these all kind of blend in together because look, if you're being
that kind of a thoughtful person that's thinking about the bigger picture of what kind of person
you're trying to be or what kind of career you're trying to build for yourself or what
kind of skill sets you're trying to build given the kind of person that you are, it
should follow naturally that you are reflecting on whether or not you're actually making an
impact.
Why does this matter?
Look, if you are doing a bunch of stuff for the sake of others, but you're not actually
helping them, that's a problem.
This is like, honestly, maybe a little too personal, but sometimes my mom is like this.
She'll come over to my place and then she'll try to help out.
She's trying to clean in all this and she's doing it in all these ways that I'm like,
oh my goodness, you're actually making things worse and I have to go ahead and clean this
stuff again.
In fact, it's going to be harder to clean now that you just did it in all the worst
ways.
Look, this is what I'm talking about.
You want to make sure that whatever it is you're doing actually has an impact because
at the end of the day, why are you doing it if you're not actually trying to make any
sort of difference?
If you're wanting to care for the people around you, who cares how hard you try and that you
love doing it if you're doing it in all the ways that doesn't actually help them?
What does it matter if you're wanting to start a business, you have a real deep passion for
it, you're very good at what you do, but at the same time, all your businesses just end
up in bankruptcy?
What does it matter if you want to do all this sort of research and you really have
a passion for it, you're committed to it?
But then at the end of the day, you can't show any results for all the work that you
did.
This is not to say that you have to, for instance, you have to be successful at everything you
do.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is, are you the kind of person that is reflecting on the process, that is
reviewing, is self-critical, is taking the time to ask yourself, is what I'm doing effective?
If it's not, can I do it differently?
Or even if there is a way that is effective, you're accomplishing your goals, you might
be asking yourself, look, but is there a better way?
What is there a better way?
If those questions spark you to change up some of the things that you do from within
an organization or to choose to work outside of an organization and do your own thing,
so be it.
But you're not, again, you're not doing it mindlessly.
You're doing it with great thought.
You're doing it with great sort of clarity in what it is you're trying to achieve and
why it is that you think that this different direction is the way to go.
It's not some impulsive, thoughtless thing you're doing.
And finally, again, if you're looking for somebody who's reliable, somebody you know
who will commit and follow through, then with all of these activities, then the question
becomes like, hey, am I really dedicating myself to this activity?
And what I mean by that is not necessarily am I doing all the checklist stuff I need
to do to say that I am doing this activity.
No, that's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is how is it that you're divvying up your time and energy?
Are you really committed to this thing?
Because if I am looking at your list of activities and I see that you're doing like 90 million
activities that you claim you're all passionate about, you're just not going to have time
to commit a lot of time and energy to every single one of them, which tells me you're
not really committed to anyone.
It's like in a relationship.
This is why if you're dating like five different people at the same time and you're saying
I'm really committed to you, aside from the fact that you're dating five different people,
it's just not enough time and energy to really dedicate yourself to any one person.
And so every single one of them gets the short end of the stick.
If you're saying you're really committed to this thing, then you would show it in your
action by dedicating yourself to that thing, to that activity.
So if you're stretched too thin, that's a problem.
That's a problem.
And look, now that we see all these bigger picture questions, then there should be some
sort of clarity that comes to you about what kind of activities you really should be committing
to and how much.
So this is where the advice start to make a lot of sense.
So for instance, I've seen good advice that says, look, are you doing too many activities?
Are you like, what does your application show that you're spending like 80 hours a week
on activities?
Like, look, if you're spending that many hours on activities while also trying to keep up
with your schoolwork, you're either sacrificing sleep or you're sacrificing real commitment
to any one of these activities.
That's a red flag.
If you're doing a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit in with a bigger picture of the kind of
person that you are.
One person could have lots of different interests for sure, but if they're all over the place,
it's just like, I'm doing one activity that has nothing to do with what I'm pursuing educationally,
but I also am doing something else that doesn't fit in with any of my career goals.
If there's like a bunch of pieces that just don't fit together, then it makes sense why
the questions might arise.
Like, look, is this really presenting a cohesive picture of the kind of person that you are?
Because it sounds like you're just doing a bunch of stuff.
If you were being more thoughtful in your approach to the activities you chose to do,
then it would signal a clear picture of what you're really about, how you see yourself
in the larger world, where you fit into the larger world, and what sort of activities
make sense for you to participate in as part of a larger world.
This is also the reason that you might also get a lot of this kind of advice that says,
look, if you're like president of a bunch of clubs at school and you do some volunteer
activities, and you play a sport or two, it feels very generic.
The application feels very generic.
In some ways, it would feel generic, in part because, again, you're doing a bunch of activities
and you're doing all the things that, quote unquote, you're supposed to do.
But again, it's starting to look like you're doing what you're supposed to do, as opposed
to doing the things that actually matter to you.
Now I'm not saying that all these activities wouldn't matter to you.
It could be that you actually genuinely care about these activities and there's a cohesive
story that you can tell, and maybe you could tell that in your personal statement.
But again, the advice that is being given, I think, in some ways misses the point.
The advice focuses on the do's and don'ts and doesn't really talk enough about why these
are going to be red flags or things that are going to raise questions for the admissions
committee.
Because what they're looking for is, honestly, a real human being.
A real human being is usually going to be super interested in a smaller subset of things,
and they're going to be super dedicated to those things.
But they're not the only things that a person cares about.
People care about all kinds of different things.
People have all kinds of things that might interest them.
So the application should demonstrate something along those lines.
It should demonstrate that you are really, really dedicated to a few really important
things that really, really matter to you, but that you have other areas of interest
and that if you have extra time and you're not sacrificing your dedication to the other
things that matter to you, then you pursue the things that you're passionate about.
And I'm guessing that even there, there's probably a story to tell about why you like
to do the things that you like to do.
So look, what I'm pointing out is the following.
People who are telling you on the one end, just follow your interests, I think that's
on the surface as bad advice.
And the reason it's bad advice is, look, just doing what you're interested in just means,
just sounds like you just do whatever you want to do.
And that sounds like a terrible idea.
Okay, why?
Because I think it's important to ask yourself, remember in the beginning I was giving you
these kinds of reflective set of questions of qualities that colleges might be looking
for.
I think you need to reflect on those questions for yourself, right?
And just doing whatever you want to mindlessly is not engaging in that kind of reflection
of the kind of person that you are and the kind of person that you want to be.
What's important is that you do things that make sense for you, right?
And part of that is going to be fitting in with your interests.
But it needs to be that your interests is reflective of something deeper about you,
right?
Something deeper about the kind of person that you are, right?
There's often here a story that's told, right?
An experience that really motivates you.
It's usually the case for human beings.
We don't just have interests that just come out of nowhere.
It comes from somewhere.
So look, I'm not saying don't pursue your interests.
I'm saying pursue your interests, but do so thoughtfully.
Do so purposefully.
Do so with the mindset of thinking about the kind of person that you are and how you can
continue to grow as the kind of person that you are, right?
Don't be somebody other than who you are, right?
And so look, don't just follow your interests mindlessly, but at the same time, don't go
down the other end and say like, oh yeah, so then I have to craft my, I have to make
sure that I check all these boxes.
I got these leadership positions and so on and so forth, right?
Look, you don't need to try to craft anything.
If you are genuinely about something, I mean, this is really the tall tale sign, right?
If you were genuinely about it, it'll show and the accolades will follow, right?
What do I mean by this?
Like, look, let me give you an example.
If you're super passionate about building robots, then build robots to your heart content
and do so in a thoughtful way where you are constantly challenging yourself and improving
and being a better version of a robot builder.
And what you'll find is that you'll naturally see that there are opportunities to engage
with other robot builders in competition or in other activities.
And those accolades are going to follow because you're going to really be dedicated to the
things that you really care about, okay?
If you are constantly trying to be somebody to fit a college application, you're already
on the path to continuing to put on a mask of yourself everywhere you go.
And at some point, that mask is going to come off.
Might as well have it come off early because you're going to be liberated to be the best
version of you instead of constantly trying to be what other people are telling you you
should be, okay?
The other thing I do want to stress is this, okay?
Especially when it comes to extracurricular activities, one of the things that students
tend to do is they start playing the comparison game, okay?
This is toxic.
I need everyone to stop doing this, all right?
If you are focused on yourself, you will get to the places you need to get to as long as
people around you are opening up these opportunities.
And an application is really an opportunity.
So look, if you focus on yourself, you don't have anything to worry about.
Do not try to compare yourself to other people's accolades and how good your application looks
compared to theirs, okay?
The application committee does not go around comparing and contrasting students' extracurricular
activities in this way.
Again, I can't stress this enough.
What you need to present is a cohesive picture of a real person.
And a real person will shine if you are being genuine.
And so you need to find a way to learn to be your truest, most authentic self.
That's the place to start.
So whatever the activity is, it doesn't even matter.
It could be Pokemon Go for all I care.
Pokemon Go, by the way, has a whole...
I didn't realize this, but a friend told me Pokemon Go has a whole society created of
Pokemon Go players that would congregate and be in chat groups and so on.
Look, if you're organizing these things and you're...
That's a leadership...
As demonstrating leadership in a way, right?
So look, what I'm pointing out is this.
Whatever your interests are, I think people get too bogged down by the what that they're
doing and they're not giving enough thought to the why they're doing it.
The why they're doing it should be the thing that actually hits a genuine chord with other
human beings.
Whether it's wanting to connect with other people, whether it's wanting to leave the
world a better place, where it's a care and concern for animals and trees and ecosystem,
whether it's self-improvement, development, or it could just be some exciting thing, like
technology really excites you or entrepreneurship gets you really excited because you like the
challenge of starting up something new.
Whatever it is, if you really are about it, it will and should show in your applications.
So stop faking it, stop trying to rig or sorry, I should say trying to game the system in
any way and just be who you actually are.
That's all I ask of you.
Be who you actually are.
And hopefully that gives you the right sort of questions to reflect on instead of focusing
so much on the what that a lot of these devices are centered on.
Good luck to you and I hope that you find a wonderful community around you of like-minded
people, of people who are passionate about the same things and really enjoy accomplishing
wonderful things together.