In a world where everyone strives to be unique, it may seem impossible to stand out.  Often facing such daunting odds in the college admissions process, high school students of the 21st century resort to demonstrating that uniqueness through the lens of a passion. Yet, no matter the number of awards in FBLA, accolades in mock trial, tournaments won in robotics, clubs founded or children assisted in third-world countries, the efforts of students often remain futile – unable to surmount those expectations.

Not all of those ‘passionate’ efforts, though, are of equal merit. A student’s demonstrative passion is either authentic or completely pretentious — and to no fault of their own. Society forces its youth to all be unique in a particular way, shape or form, most notably amidst college applications. All my life, I have grown up hearing stories of math geniuses who went to Harvard and musical prodigies who received full-ride scholarships; however, the overarching question is always: “So what did he/she do?” 

Everyone assumes that there must be a special something that distinguishes a student from their millions of peers around the world, perpetuating the notion that one must have a passion to be successful.

This, in and of itself, is flawed. Humans’ particularity has only ever been augmented in being multifaceted creatures, yet the modern educative atmosphere quashes that inherent part of our nature.

While society generally pushes these expectations onto those without a realized passion, those who have found genuine enthusiasm in something suffer from a different issue – the myriad of false passions that often eclipse their devotion. On paper, it is difficult to differentiate between a heartfelt pursuit and one meticulously crafted to impress admissions officers. When a disinterested individual can pretend to be dedicated to helping kids in Africa and be considered the creator of an impactful passion project, or when said individual’s affluent family can help organize events, fundraisers and activities that those without money would be unable to achieve, the hardworking student teaching local kids in need at home cannot help but feel disheartened. When such a large portion of so-called passion projects lose focus of their actual goal and devolve into self-centered endeavors, it is society that must eventually carry that weight.

The consequences of such sentiment have already infected the youth as they journey into the future and will reverberate throughout society once our generation enters the workforce. Litigators who don’t know how to speak, doctors who don’t care about the lives in their hands or teachers without an interest in fostering their kids seem like the stuff of a dystopian society. But as long as the current system continues to force students into predefined boxes and limit exploration, this could very well become our reality.