Every week I sat at our dining table tapping my pencil on a math sheet, alternating between staring out of the window or doodling on the pages of my math book. Like many right-side-of-the brain students, math felt more abstract than the poems or short stories assigned in English. Each math class taken, equation completed and graph drawn was completed with great strain and pain. If anything, an important lesson was learned: sometimes you must endure the unpleasant in order to advance.
Therefore, we endure discomfort because we are promised a reward. Get through the unpleasant class to earn the credits you need for your degree. Take the low paying job to earn some extra money. Accept the internship you aren’t that invested in because it fills up the resume. Go to that event to network because you might meet someone who can point you in the right direction.
But what is all of this hustle and endurance for? We no longer spend the entirety of our day securing sufficient sustenance or fighting unruly predators, leaving little time for much else. In fact, the acquisition of daily bread is, for many, a matter of choosing what best suits our fancy that day. The impact of thousands of years of agricultural, cultural, medical and technological advancements have freed us from physical labor and more primitive struggles that defined most of human history. In its place, a market system we take for granted arose, one that placed self-interest and competition at the center of society’s organization.
What once was our source of struggle has become secondary. In its place, each individual has a choice – a choice of what interest to pursue that will make us competitive candidates in the marketplace.
This system, however, doesn’t simply delight in interests for interests’ sake. There must be a measurable output, a good or service that others are willing to buy. Value is measured by productivity, and consumption of the goods produced as a result.
How often do we celebrate someone’s talent only after it becomes profitable? A piece of art, clothing or a song may be beautiful and unique, but it is deemed truly worthy once it proves marketable. How many of us, young and old, shaped by such a mindset, have abandoned interests that provided us with outlets of creativity and joy because, implicitly, we realized that we would never be good enough at them.
Worse yet, how many of us have chosen not to try something because it would never produce value. Or perhaps the concern is that choosing to pursue a hobby or interest, one that would require effort, struggle and sacrifice, is in vain because it detracts from development of those skills we can monetize and market.
In this way, we have not abandoned struggle, we have simply prioritized hardship that we believe will provide us with a measurable return on investment. Within this framework, there is immense privilege; we live a cushioned life, fluffed up by the contributions of those before us. While recognizing the unique opportunity we have to choose an area of study and ultimately our career, we must recognize what is often overlooked or undermined. That is, the freedom to struggle, to dare to be bad or even terrible at something that brings us joy, challenges our minds or provides us with a creative outlet without expectations of material reward. To produce art that most would sneer at, to take a photo of something overlooked, to write a poem that only the paper and your eyes will see, or to read a book on some obscure topic for the sake of curiosity.
Ambition to be a dedicated student, a hard worker or good at one’s craft is a wonderful and often fulfilling path. However, when we idolize the end result of our struggles for professional achievement, we risk minimizing the experiences that did require effort but did not earn recognition.
Choose to do something challenging that does not contribute to a marketable image. Perhaps even more radical, choose to transform the challenges endured for professional development. Instead of an internship that looks good on a resume, seek an internship that excites and inspires.
If we are privileged enough to be afforded a choice – a conscious decision to pursue a certain career or discipline – then we should also refuse to limit why we endure hardship. Once we become enslaved to the view that every act of struggle should contribute to measurable growth, we lose sight of the joy gained when we struggle without expectation of return.
