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The observer | wednesday, march 10, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com

For the overthinkers

Sydni Brooks

everything is Fine

I didn’t recognize how bad of an overthinker I was until I caught myself judging how I sounded speaking in class with my mask on. I grew nervous that I sounded extremely muffled and my professor wouldn’t be able to hear what I was trying to articulate. I simultaneously feared the mask made me sound quieter, but I didn’t want to raise my voice because I didn’t want to sound like I was screaming. since the cadence of my voice is partially out of my control whether I wear a mask or not, I recognized how completely ridiculous I was for ridiculing myself on how strange I thought I sounded in front of my class. I began to acknowledge all the things I overthink and recognized that from things like how well I’m doing academically to my relationships with my friends and family, I stress over my abilities of being a good student, daughter, sister, friend and person.

I stress about how other people perceive me or how my actions are interpreted by others, and I feel that I constantly have to prove I’m funny enough to fit into my friend groups, smart enough to attend such a prestigious university, black enough to completely identify with those that look like me or adult enough to function successfully in society. however, I began to understand that as much as I stress over what everyone thinks of me and what I think of myself, no one else is thinking about me as much as I think they are because they are probably thinking just as heavily about themselves.

We place ourselves at the center of our own lives because it’s the only life we know; we are the main character of our life story. our thoughts are constantly consumed with how we appear or reflect on other people because our concepts of right and wrong or acceptable and unacceptable are based on our relationships with each other, as well as the consequences we have watched others endure. If we see someone being negatively critiqued or ridiculed because of how they talk or what they wear, we subconsciously place them in a category we choose to separate ourselves from, and we make a point to do things in opposition to those “negative” behaviors. While these initial judgements might seem like harmless opinions, continuing to distinguish socially acceptable behaviors into categories can cause us to dictate every minuscule detail of our lives, such as how long we look in someone’s eyes while talking to them, or how close someone is to you in order to continue holding the door open. once we become trapped in this cycle of micromanaging every detail of our lives to fit into our personal definitions of social acceptance, we become exhausted in tyrannizing what we can and can’t do. We decide to dictate our own success to our own degree and try to discard the artificial standards we have created for ourselves. however, our measurements of success are modeled after how other people succeed, regardless of what route to success we take. We live our lives through the relationships and ideologies of the people around and before us, so leaving behind the presumed thoughts and opinions of other people is extremely difficult because those thoughts and opinions are how we experience life.

We strive to present the best version of ourselves to other people because we want those around us to have positive responses to our character. We desire to make our parents and family members proud, to make our friends enjoy being around us and to make our romantic partners believe we are the best companion to compliment them. It is not solely about caring what other people think about us; it is about wanting to live the most fulfilled life with the most developed character, but we subject ourselves to the opinions of others to define what that “most fulfilled life” and “most developed character” is. We can comprehend the notion that not everyone is going to like us because everyone’s interests are different. however, we want the number of people who don’t like us to be small, and even if we aren’t some people’s favorite person in the world, we don’t want them to have negative thoughts about us. We analyze ourselves based on what we think other people are analyzing about us, and in doing so, we over analyze the things we do in order to appear “better” in front of others and, in turn, ourselves.

While I don’t have the cure to overthinking, I can rationalize that if everyone is so focused on how they are perceived by the outside world, they probably don’t have time to over analyze every detail about someone else. We stress ourselves out over how many times we raise our hand in class or which shoes match those specific pair of jeans, but people are so focused on how long they’ve raised their own hand and the shoes that match their own pair of jeans that the small pieces of embarrassment we might feel when we succumb to something that falls into the socially unacceptable phase are honestly unnecessary. I won’t tell you to stop overthinking, because I believe that overthinking is better than not thinking at all. however, no one is thinking as hard about you as you are thinking about you, because they are probably thinking just as hard about themselves.

Sydni Brooks is a junior at Notre Dame studying English and gender studies. She is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and calls Flaherty Hall home on campus. With equal passions in writing and helping others, she hopes to serve her community well in her future. She can be reached at sbrooks2@nd.edu or @sydnimaree22 on Twitter.

The Charleston in the 2020s

Elizabeth Prater

sparknd

Looking out onto West Quad, you can occasionally see the splendor of the men of duncan hall, clad in their trademark green blazers. how does one of the newest men’s dorms on campus gain such status in their emblems of class and style? I can’t help but find striking similarities but as to Jay Gatsby’s estate.

Located in West egg, Gatsby’s estate is the paradigm of power, identifiable to narrator nick carraway by the green light that is visible from across the water. everyone is captivated by Jay Gatsby and the wealth that he seems to perpetuate with each extravagant party.

While I could spend a lengthy amount of time attempting to draw out parallels between the iconic work of F. scott Fitzgerald and duncan hall, I believe stronger connections can be established between the themes of the book and life lessons that can be gleaned from it.

Jay Gatsby is not initially a man of means. he grows up in the agricultural domain of the midwest, where he then moves to new York to pursue what english teachers across America engrain into students’ heads as the “American dream.” At the end of the novel, we realize that perhaps he never fully achieves this dream, despite his bounds of riches.

While “The Great Gatsby” is a cult-favorite for required reading lists, I believe the novel offers some real merit, despite its overuse and interesting 2013 adaptation. (sorry Leo.)

In a way, I think a lot of notre dame students resemble a version of Jay Gatsby. many of us have large aspirations, pursuing higher education for a myriad of reasons. We toiled over every standardized test that was thrown our way, spent all of our time in club meetings and wrote personal statements that attempted to sum our life thus far in an unreasonable word count.

As I walk around campus, I can’t help but feel grateful. For the dome in the distance, the swans that beautifully grace the lakes — from a safe distance — and the playing of the Alma mater on game day. All of my past study sessions seem worth it when I’m able to call notre dame my home. however, I hope that we continue to look at “The Great Gatsby” as a reminder to check our motivations for pursuing such accolades. Gatsby believed that his increase in wealth would win over daisy’s heart, but of course, his desire never came true.

When you are spending all hours of the night at hesburgh Library, perhaps you chase graduating with Latin honors or getting into a prestigious law school. but what do these goals mean without purpose? one can spend an entire lifetime pursuing a plethora of degrees, trophies and filling one’s bank account. however, at the end of the day, will these things fulfill us? Will they make us happy? or will we be like Gatsby, succumbing to loneliness after a night of luxury?

I’m not necessarily advocating for everlasting altruism to be our savior, nor saying that we can’t aim to achieve such ambitions. however, I think it’s important to have an anchor that grounds us, reminding us of our humanity and the transitory nature of life. none of our possessions — whether material or that of power — are a given. one day, we can wake up, and everything for which we have worked can dissipate under irrepressible forces that we cannot explain. What then, will be the thing that brings us hope? What will bring us joy?

They say that history repeats itself every century, and there are outstanding applications to how we can analyze “The Great Gatsby” in a modern context. The 2020s haven’t been off to a great start, but through the chaos, we are offered a time of reflection and an inspection of our inner selves.

Although many students roll their eyes when they are given this book to read in schools across the nation, we should heed Jay Gatsby’s story. It spews a tale that is familiar to many high achievers of the 21st century — that is, of ephemeral fulfillment and eternal dissatisfaction.

In other words, once we achieve something, like Gatsby, it is never quite enough. In an effort to go forward, one can become so backwards that one loses what is truly important. “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

KERRY SCHNEEMAN | The Observer

Elizabeth Prater is a first-year student with double majors in marketing and Program of Liberal Studies. In her free time, she manages her goldendoodle’s Instagram account (@genevieve_the_cute_dog) which has over 23K followers. She can be reached at eprater@nd.edu or @elizabethlianap on Twitter.

The views expressed in this column are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Observer.

The observer | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com