Last week on campus, I heard a lecture from Annie McDaniel, USF’s chapter leader for Saint Paul’s Outreach that made me change the way I see a couple things. 

Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) is a Catholic-based organization that sends missionaries to college campuses to help college students stay connected to their Catholic faith. 

SPO focuses on building relationships with college students and helping them navigate through their faith life.

The main takeaway I got from this talk was college makes you selfish.

I agree. Here’s why. 

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In college, your sole responsibility is to yourself. You make all of your decisions and it’s up to you how you spend your time. 

This can promote an “I”-centric world, one where you don’t consider your community or others because you’re too busy focusing on yourself. 

“I think in college you’re really encouraged to make the decisions that are like the best for you and kind of focus less on the people around you,” McDaniel said.  

While looking out for yourself might seem like a fine thing, it can actually prevent your preparedness for family life. 

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Whether you need to support your own family as you age or you’re planning on starting a family of your own after college, only thinking about your own responsibilities can harm that goal. 

Getting used to the idea that you need to fit other people and their care into your schedule can be jarring for someone who is used to focusing inwardly.

“It’s kind of in college when you’re exposed to this idea of the rat race, like anything to get ahead,” McDaniel said. 

The “rat race” is the competition we feel to get the internship or the job, even if that means pushing colleagues out of the way to get there. 

Instead of building a strong community, we are bringing each other down, so we’re the last one standing on the hill. 

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Beyond that, the “I” world is lonely.

It’s isolating to live alone, or to be self-centered and isolated mentally. When you reject community through the “I” world, you are also rejecting all of its benefits.

And this can be harmful to our mental health. 

“You’re kind of living in an echo chamber, so like whatever you decide is true and whatever you believe, like there’s nobody to challenge that,” McDaniel said.

That means if you’re thinking poorly about yourself, there is no one around you to tell you that’s not true and lift you up. The “echo chamber” only worsens that, especially if you’re an overthinker like me. 

So, college makes you selfish, but it doesn’t have to.

Through participation with your community – whether it’s clubs, politics or religious organizations – you can become a more civic-minded person. 

When you make a conscious effort to consider others around you, you are making a conscious effort to consider the world, and for that, the world just might be a better place.