Kurt Vonnegut and College Advice?

Renowned author Kurt Vonnegut took an unflinching look at the world, tempered with a satirical eye and sardonic sense of humor. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works, with further collections published after his death. Among his most notable works are Cat’s Cradle, Player Piano, and Breakfast of Champions: or, Good Bye Blue Monday. His most notable book, however, might be Slaughter House-Five. The Boston Globe writes about the book, “Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement.” I am giving some background to the author because who would have thought he would have written some excellent advice about college without knowing it? Well, he did and here it is.

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes. And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.” And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.” And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

My advice to students worried about building a list of activities just to impress colleges is to follow the wisdom Kurt gives and do things because you enjoy them and do not simply do things because you think you can “Win” at them. You will most likely enjoy your time in high school a bit more and have some “wonderful experiences” and become more of an “interesting person” by doing so. Remember, colleges want to know who you are outside of the classroom. Depth in a few activities is more compelling than a long list of them that simply fill a page.