Marcie Ratliff/Winonan

Recently I was walking on campus and happened upon a sign that read, “Put Saving Lives on your resume!”

I am skeptical every time I am told that an event, club, cause, organization or anything is a resume-builder. That line seems to be the trump card, as if I should, after hearing such a benefit, want to participate—not for any intrinsic value of whatever is being promoted, but because it will presumably help me scale the corporate ladder.

Merely the ladder of higher education, the ladder of life itself, higher and higher and higher, keeping pace with grade inflation and the lack of entry-level jobs that don’t require a degree and on and on.

It’s clear we are socialized to need extrinsic motivators, to want to do things for selfish reasons. It seems we do things because they will get us somewhere, not because we actually enjoy them.

The flip side is equally scary, given my generation’s and my own penchant to regress to the lowest possible form of existence when given “free time.”

If we all did what we loved, we would never do anything. We would scroll endlessly through Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, books, memes, laughing dully at what we have made and designated as funny. Do I exaggerate? Oh, we would work out and talk and write and cook and do dishes and work retail too. Nothing wrong with that.

So, resume-builders are the perfect motivator. Get your butt in gear and beef up that resume. Do things that will make you look good so people will like you.

Perhaps doing those very resume-building things will actually make you a better person. Maybe going to college and participating in campus activities is more than just a nice-looking line on a resume. It’s plausible.

But more often than not, we drag around complaining about the very resume-builders that are supposed to turn us into whole, sophisticated individuals. We have to raise money for our club. We have to do office hours. We have to. Do we? What happens if we don’t match up to our own resumes?

We are busier than we have ever been and more technologically savvy than ever, so why shouldn’t we take our free time for granted and go on with our lives harmlessly enough?

It seems, from what I have observed on campus, like there are two responses to the above queries. The first is to do resume-builders, so many of them you can’t keep them straight. An easy trap if you are an over-committer. The second is to take your name off all those email lists and, slowly, reassemble a sense of yourself. It might be one club. It might be five.

It starts with how we view the time we spend at college, whether it’s time with Darrell Krueger or time with Doritos or time with underprivileged children. There are many worthy causes out there, and it’s necessary to choose wisely.

I hope the term “resume-builder” disappears from promotional lingo. Because urging students to participate in a worthy cause is one thing. Disguising service as selfishness is another.

So, every once in a while it would be refreshing to get asked to participate in Colleges Against Cancer not for what it can do for me, but for what I can do for it. Everyone has something to contribute to some corner of the world.

Contact Marcie at [email protected]