I Still Don't Care About Your Interview

Yesterday I posted this Yik Yak, mostly in jest:

            What I’ve come to realize is that it’s more relevant than I possibly could have imagined.  I’m applying to internships too.  We all are.  Every day one of my friends shows up to the dining hall in a suit with a story.  “They asked me this.”  “I emailed them that.”  “They’re flying me to New York on Friday.”  Who cares?  Apparently everyone.  Here’s why I don’t.

            I’m turning 21 in two months.  A few months later I’ll start what is hopefully my last year of schooling for the foreseeable future.  Every day I get emails with job postings and networking events.  I read every single one and each sounds worse than the last.  The question I keep asking myself is why should I go sit behind a computer all summer?  Don’t get me wrong; I fully comprehend the notion of paying your dues.  At some point, apparently, there comes a time when real life begins.

            But, what is this real life that I keep hearing about? I’m tired of hearing about signing bonuses, and enormous salaries, and long hours.  Everyone I know is working so hard, all to be able to afford a small apartment and a $20 drink on Saturday night.  It’s not the rigor of the work, however, that bothers me; it’s the scope.

            We don’t go to a top-20 university anymore, at least not according to the latest survey, but none of that even really matters.  No one ended up at Emory by accident.  We’ve all put in grueling hours studying, volunteering, you name it, while trying to balance a social life that theoretically makes it all worth while.  Emory is full of brilliant, motivated people—people capable of changing the world we live in for the better.

            Yet, no one I meet wants to be a teacher, or a fireman, or a public defender.  All anyone seems to want is the biggest paycheck they can get their hands on, and that’s truly depressing.  I honestly believe that we are the people who have the capabilities to shape the future.  We are the people who could reform education and healthcare.  We are the people who could rebuild America’s many broken cities.  But, we won’t.

            Instead, we’ll move to New York.  We’ll play with massive bank accounts.  We might even cause the next big economic collapse.  Who knows?  So, no, I still don’t care about your interview with Goldman Sachs.  I wish you all the best, but I know you don’t care.  The more I think about it, the less I want to be a part of this “business world” I hear so much about.  I want to do something good for this world, because I know I can, and I hope everyone reading this does too.