College is a place of limitless opportunities. With so many options vying for attention though, it’s impossible to do them all. This has been a point of stress for me during my college experience — how can you decide what to do when it feels like life is pulling you in a million different directions? How do you balance the need for activities that bring you joy versus ones which are productive?
As a freshman it felt like there were a lot of things I should be doing — like research, searching for a job, networking, etc. Everyone seemed to be doing these things, working some side hustle, or cutting class for a career fair. And it makes sense. While we are collecting debt in college, we are supposed to be productive, make the most of our time, and chase a return on investment, right? Once during office hours, I wanted to get to know my math teaching assistant (TA) more and asked how he spent his free time. His initial response was that as a TA he didn’t write letters of recommendation because he thought that that was the reason I was trying to get to know him! I was shocked, but didn’t blame him because everyone seemed to be working some angle. This made me realize how easy it was to fall into the trap of thinking of every action as having to advance yourself, having to be productive.
My freshman year (the nerd I am), I fell in love with my classes, and office hours became an essential part of my routine for surviving class. I found that even in a class of 300+ students, few were willing to make the trek to office hours. I’d go even when I didn’t have any pressing things to ask, just to chat and discuss things that we wouldn’t be tested on, but I wanted to know anyway. Through this, I was able to get to know my professors really well.
Every time I was at office hours without a question, I had to fight the pressure to do something productive, let myself sit back and have a conversation or listen to someone else’s question. Through doing this, I gained so much more from office hours than learning about course content. I learned to juggle from my math professor and met one of my best friends at office hours! Showing up to office hours also led to my current position as a course producer (undergraduate teaching assistant) with a professor I had freshman year. Even though I wasn’t pursuing anything explicitly productive, following my passions ended up being productive in its own right.
The simple answer is that anything that brings you joy is productive and a worthwhile use of your time. Simply doing the things you love takes you so far because this is when your passion shines through. Some of my friends have told me that the way that I light up as I animatedly describe my latest class is contagious, even if they have never heard about the subject before. So pursue the things that make the hours fly by, where your enthusiasm is infectious, where you find true joy, and you’ll go far.
