The realization that life is getting serious seems to have beaten us back to campus this fall. It hits especially hard for those of us in that liminal space that sits past the bliss of first year and the security of a post-grad job. We\u2019ve barely settled into our schedules, and already the clock is ticking on our future. We\u2019re exhausted, overworked, and our brains are turning into a mush of AI, screen time, and info sessions. Still, LinkedIn is exploding with announcements of job offers and internships. So, apparently some of us aren\u2019t quite as troubled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Penn\u2019s push toward careers has morphed from a humorous conversation point into something much more sinister. As if everyone in the \u201cthis is stupid we\u2019ll figure out jobs later\u201d club has secretly taken a bid at Goldman. Of course, to see your peers accomplish their dreams and secure their place in the world is a beautiful thing. But it also makes our futures much less of a blurry hypothetical and instead a tangible and solid wall \u2014 one we must all begin our climb up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s suddenly standard to have our career and life after college secured. This is good. This is tradition. Everything is falling into place exactly how everyone knew it would. We will occupy top spots at top firms and live the rest of our lives summering and skiing and sending our kids to feeder schools where they\u2019ll meet each other. And in the most shocking turn of events, they\u2019ll go to Penn too. The cycle will repeat itself. (With nuance of course \u2014 your kids might go to Columbia).<\/p>\n
This sounds great. This is the return of our financial investment in Penn. This is job security and the benefits of being admitted into the top ranks of society. The problem isn\u2019t success, and it\u2019s not ambition. The problem is that we will be powerful, secure, and comfortable, and that\u2019s it. We will never be radical.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout my time as a Penn student, I\u2019ve had the opportunity to speak to numerous wildly successful people. Changemakers, entrepreneurs, nonprofit starters: people at the top of their respective fields. My classmates and myself have watched eagerly, waiting for the moment a guest speaker might finally give us the answer to success. Like they might just forget that it\u2019s a secret and it will just come spilling out. Yet, each time we\u2019re disappointed. Because they all have no concrete answer. It\u2019s no one school, no one pill, no one path. So we chalk it up to destiny and finish that recruiting application we put down momentarily.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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