OPINION: Just Be You
Photo via The New Political
Danny Murnin, a Senior studying Journalism, argues that the younger generation should be inclined to take risks and do what makes them happy.
For months now, I have gone back and forth on what I wanted my final article for The New Political to be about. As I prepare to graduate next week, there are still so many things on my mind that I want to bring attention to for our audience. However, this isn’t just my final article for this publication. It is the last thing I will ever do for a student media publication, which I have been involved with constantly for eight years, since I was a shy freshman in high school.
These last few weeks, as I prepare to enter full-fledged adulthood upon my graduation, I’ve done a lot of reflection on the things I’ve done that have brought me here, to this moment now. Through all the ups and downs and twists and turns that my short life has had to offer, I still feel that the time I spent as a reporter for my high school newspaper was the most directly impactful experience on my goals in life. I learned to question everything and take nothing for granted. I learned to value the truth and not settle for anything less than it. I learned to respect different points of view and appreciate diversity. Most importantly, I learned to think for myself. Unfortunately, however, I worry this is a problem for my generation.
A few weeks ago, I was scrolling on X when I saw some interesting discourse taking place over college admissions. On March 31, an 18-year-old high school senior named Zach Yadegari posted that he had been rejected from 15 out of the 18 colleges he applied to despite having a 4.0 GPA and a 34 ACT score. What made these rejections even more shocking was that neither of these numbers were his biggest accomplishment. Yadegari actually created a highly successful and lucrative platform that uses AI to estimate the nutritional value of food just from a picture.
When he posted his personal statement he used for his applications below his first post, however, his rejection from these elite universities began to make sense. Yadegari lists several reasons throughout the essay why going to college doesn’t make sense for him, instead describing college as a “right of passage” that would serve as “a conduit to elevate the work I have always done.” His problem is that he doesn’t say how college would elevate him. He implies in prior paragraphs that he wants to go to college simply because he is bored and seeks to defy societal expectations of “the archetypal dropout founder.”
Pushing aside your own discomfort with something to please certain people and meet certain standards is a phenomenon that has existed as long as time; my generation is not the first to have this problem. I do feel, however, that it is significantly worse in my generation. I believe the root cause of the problem is that my generation hasn’t been put in enough situations that foster independent, critical thinking.
One such situation for me was when I was finalizing my college plans toward the end of my time in high school. I had known for months before I actually committed that I belonged at Ohio University. It had everything I was looking for: a fantastic journalism program, a beautiful, walkable campus, nearby hiking and biking paths, affordability, and a reputation for being an easy place to socialize and make lifelong friends. My parents and other adults in my life disagreed, and they brought up logical points that made sense. Ohio U’s reputation was and still is more of a party school than an academic powerhouse, which they were concerned about because I hardly partied in high school. There was also another equally good, if not better journalism school in-state, just two hours away, where I would actually have existing friends. But something about this quaint school in Athens, Ohio, just felt right to me. I stuck to my instincts and held firm, and won the conversation at the start of that spring.
Even when my parents tried to change my mind again a few weeks later, concerned about classes being held online due to COVID-19 when I started, I stood my ground, for no other reason than that I had unwavering faith that things would get better. I refused to accept that a problem as minuscule as the number of online classes I’d be taking would determine what the next four years of my life would be like. I recognized then, as I do now, that life has its ups and downs. Sometimes we need to push through the downs to reach the highest ups.
As I write this four years later, now a senior in college, I’m sitting at my black IKEA desk in my bedroom in my house on Hocking Street, pondering what my life would look like if I hadn’t been so stubborn and agreed to stay in-state. Would I be miserable? I hope not. Would I have no friends? Unlikely. Would I be as happy as I am now? Not a chance.
The point I am making here is that more often than not, young people should go with their own gut and belief in their ability to make something good when confronted with a tough choice about their future that seemingly rejects certain societal expectations. The reason why few young people actually end up doing this has largely to do with broader socio-cultural trends. Technology has completely taken over every facet of individual life, and activities that used to require critical thinking can now be done in seconds using AI or other online tools. Social media, in particular, has had a debilitating effect. Gen Z minds have been led to believe that every beautiful photo they see of someone on Instagram is a perfect encapsulation of their entire life, that loud minorities are majorities, that self-assured podcasters have all the answers to life’s problems and that influencers showcase realistic lifestyle and attractiveness standards.
Of course, not everyone in Gen Z is like this, and I would say that number is much larger than what is usually portrayed in the media. Some people might argue that for those of us who have the ability to see through the worst that today’s social landscape has to offer and don’t constantly need our hand held, it is unreasonable to care so much about the intellectual capabilities of others.
That might be a fair point if we are just talking about the present moment, but that isn’t true of the future. There will come a time when the politicians, professors and business leaders who constantly bemoan “kids these days” will retire and die and be replaced by our generation. When we find ourselves in positions of actual power, the ability to think critically as an individual makes all the difference in what kind of impact we will leave on the world.
Looking back, what brought me to Ohio U was my high capacity for critical, intellectual thinking when I was a senior in high school. I knew my values, I was confident enough to tell figures of authority in my life that they were wrong and I always stuck to my gut. Regretfully, I didn’t remain that person the entire time I was in college. There was a point last year when I suddenly changed my mind on the industry I wanted to work in because of recent developments related to a major geopolitical issue. I felt that it was so important that I break into that field because I believed it gave me an opportunity to make an incredible difference in the world. Unfortunately, I lost sight of what making a positive impact actually is. I became so obsessed with doing everything I could to fit the model of what a conventional person in that field looks like, that I mentally pushed aside my own morals and intellect.
In what I understand now was no coincidence, it was an act of total independence that brought my sense of moral clarity back. Less than a month before spring break, I booked an expensive solo trip to Poland on a whim, longing to see a part of the world I had always been interested in. While I was there, I started to feel differently about the issue that had caused me to close myself off from my principles in the first place. This didn’t happen because of some deep conversation or traumatic event. It happened because I was alone and being forced to think for myself in that environment, to have a successful trip, caused me to start thinking more critically about other things on my mind as well.
What sealed the deal was when I toured the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp on my final day in the country. As a major history buff, I’ve watched so many things and read so much about the Holocaust, but nothing prepares you for what you feel when you enter a place that was the site of the largest mass murder in human history. When I was walking through Auschwitz, thinking about different theories of violence while reliving the atrocities of the past, it suddenly hit me just how important it is to remain self-aware about life. It shouldn't matter what type of industry I want to work in or who I want to like me. There are just some things that everyone should be able to agree are wrong.
My time in college and my journey leading up to it have taught me to embrace the unknown. It is in the situations that we are least prepared for that we learn the most about ourselves and what we really value. Anyone who is young, no matter how much they do it now, still has the capacity for independent, critical thinking. This intellect is needed to steer our world toward a better future that defies the stunningly low expectations that the older generations have of us. But something has to give for everyone my age to unlock that potential.
The two most important things that contributed to me being the educated, self-aware individual I believe I am came as a result of choosing independence over dependence and discomfort over comfort. I put myself out there and reaped the rewards of it. Other people my age can do the same.
Maybe that means going somewhere far away for college or taking a trip to an unfamiliar place like I did. But also, don’t be afraid to initiate a relationship with that impressive person you are infatuated with. Don’t be afraid to take an internship or job in a city you’ve never been to. Still, whatever you do, just be you.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.
