Lana Altunashvili ’27 is a prospective international relations major. She is a James Monroe Scholar and a member of Club Tennis. Contact her at laltunashvili@wm.edu.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own.
Last year as I was being interviewed for an internship, I was asked a question: What would you do if you could do anything in life? As an international relations major, maybe I was supposed to say something different. Something along the lines of, “I want to be a diplomat,” or, “I would love to work in the foreign service.” But after a bit of thought I decided to be honest and say that it had been my lifelong dream to write a novel. The sacrifices we make for the sake of convenience — the topic has been on my mind a lot lately. Some of my friends say they’re worried about not having enough academic extracurriculars, about not getting the best grades, about not being as involved as other people on campus. That made me wonder… What do we do things for? Who is it that we do them for? Ourselves? Our resume? Of course, as a friend of mine pointed out, ideally those two would overlap. But do they? And what should we do if they don’t?
For some context, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. “I will write a book someday, I have so many ideas,” I would confidently say to anyone who would listen. Bit by bit, however, the spark died out, like many of them do. Slowly but surely, as I was told it would be impractical and unprofitable to be a writer, I decided to do something ‘better.’ I turned from one major to the next, trying on various costumes it seemed, looking in the mirror and seeing if I recognized myself in any of them. Finally, I landed on international relations. And still, something during that interview stopped me, and I couldn’t lie. I wanted to be true to myself, and at the very least, in this perfect hypothetical world where nothing depends on what I do, where money doesn’t matter, I wanted to say that I would indeed write a story worth telling to the world. But why does that matter? What does this have to do with resumes or academics?
Over a heartfelt conversation, my best friend pointed out to me that I haven’t really done anything I’ve truly wanted to do over the past few years. Somehow, every time I wanted to do something I had dreamt of, life had simply gotten in the way. I thought of going to university elsewhere but couldn’t, thought of taking a gap year but couldn’t. I thought of studying English and Classics, but I didn’t. Every time, practicality would somehow seep into my hopes and dreams. And though I like where I ended up, though I enjoy doing what I do and the classes that I’m taking… I can’t help but long for more. And finally, after a long time, I’m doing something about it — study abroad.
Having submitted all of my essays and soon my application, I realize that I have so much to look forward to. After saying, “I want to study abroad for a semester,” I will actually be doing it, and there is probably no feeling better than that. But even now, I found myself doubting the decision. Should I do the St. Andrews program instead? After all, it is more competitive… It would look better. It would look better on my resume. But again, as cliché as it may sound, I had to ask myself: who am I doing this for?
Sometimes this simple truth escapes us, but people value those who know more than them not only in their area of expertise but also in a realm completely different from what they normally do. People value different experiences. If I were an employer, after hundreds of the same almost-cloned applicants, I would look for the ones that have taken risks and done something different. We don’t all have to have the same internships, the same extracurriculars, the same activities. True, it’s good to show you can lead a team. It’s good to show you know how to do experiments. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t do any of those things. But remember to also do something purely for yourself. Go practice the piano in the music hall, write a short story, learn some words in your native language that you may have forgotten — do something that will not go onto your resume but something that you will be proud of yourself for having done. And don’t wait like me… but if you did, it’s also never too late to start.
