The Day I Realized Nobody Actually Cares
When I was in school, I had a full-time side job: seeking validation. Not officially, of course. There was no salary, no contract. Just a constant internal pressure to prove something to everyone around me. Teachers. Classmates. Random people who probably weren’t even paying attention. If I was good at something, I made sure people knew I was good at it. Not in an obvious bragging way — that would be embarrassing. It was more subtle. Strategic. Carefully timed comments like: "Oh, that? Yeah, I did that project last night. It was pretty easy." Classic. School makes you believe that being the “reliable one” or the “smart one” is some permanent identity badge. Once people see you that way, you’ve secured your place in the social ecosystem forever. Plot twist: that ecosystem expires the moment you graduate. Then I stepped into college. And something fascinating happened. Nobody cared. Not a little bit. Not secretly. Not even out of politeness. Nobody woke up thinking,...