It feels like everyone is working on something: a clothing brand, a podcast, a party promotion service. Passion projects are everywhere, especially on college campuses. While it’s a beautiful sight to see people build things they care about, I’ve started to notice a strange shift in the way we talk about these projects, where they’ve started to sound less like passion and more like pressure.

When I ask someone what they are working on, I fully expect to hear a laundry list of endeavors that sound like they were pulled straight off a pitch deck. The subtext is oftentimes, “Is this enough?” instead of “This is what I am excited to do!”

This arises out of an idea that our worth is tied to our output, that to be worth something we have to dedicate our lives to constant production. This mindset has robbed us of our creativity and passions, and the results have left us with a culture where even simple joy feels performative. 

Think about the last time you did something where you didn’t have a lingering thought in the back of your brain wondering, “How can I weasel this into a cover letter or a job interview?” 

When everything we do has the potential to become a bullet point on a resume or a LinkedIn post, it’s easy to forget that not everything needs to be for something grand. We can just do things for the sake of doing them. 

There is nothing wrong with using your experiences as talking points or application boosters and being ambitious. But if all that you do is purely out of obligation, you lose your sense of passion.

Every project turns into a vessel for a feeling of value or self worth, which can lead to detrimental effects on your mental health when you don’t have a project to work on. If you are not doing things because you love them, but rather because you’re afraid of what it means to not do them at all, it may be time to rethink how you pursue your endeavors.

Stillness should not be something that we fear; we should be allowed to rest. Do things because they are fun or meaningful only to you, and if it applies to an interview question down the line, that should just be a bonus. Have projects that you do for professional development, but don’t forget who you are and what matters to you in the process. 

You are not a business, you are not a brand, and you are not defined by a list of deliverables, despite what our capitalistic society tells us. 

It’s easy to fall into this mindset when everyone around you seems to be oozing purpose and achievements. However, curated milestones like internships and passion projects are poor measurements of ourselves. Real growth doesn’t always look impressive. Sometimes real growth comes from quitting a project that no longer makes sense to you or doing absolutely nothing and realizing that you’re still enough. 

If every move you make is calculated for a portfolio, you risk diluting yourself into a person who only looks good on paper. Don’t let professional development be the only reason you do photography or write stories or any take on any other creative project. 

There are some things you should do because you light up at the sound of them, not because they make you more hireable. If you chase experiences for how they will be perceived, you will lose the chance to truly enjoy them.

Make something, read something or do something and let yourself not share it. Let actual passion projects be for yourself and yourself alone. Let go of the black and white idea that everything needs to be strategic and give yourself permission to not optimize every corner of your life. Make mistakes and try new things without the worry of a failed CV heading because, at the end of the day, it was your passion and your project.