For most of my life, I was afraid to be caught caring. I tried too hard in school, obsessed over my favorite celebrities, and knew too much about current events. In high school, I was told I was “too political” when I spoke out against injustice or expressed a deep sense of fairness. The criticism was always the same: I cared too much.
So, I learned to downplay it. If someone in my class asked what grade I got on a test, I’d lie and say I did worse than I actually did. When Taylor Swift dropped a new album, I’d act indifferent, even though I’d stayed up all night listening to it. I didn’t want to be seen as a try-hard, so I tried to play it cool. It rarely worked.
When I arrived at Northwestern, imposter syndrome hit hard. At first, I let others’ success make me doubt my own. I saw their achievements not as inspiration, but as evidence that maybe I didn’t belong.
“Everyone at this school is so freaking accomplished. It’s so annoying,” I told my mom on the phone my freshman year.
Then, during winter quarter, I received a card in the mail from my Aunt Annie. On the front was a quote by Leonardo da Vinci, “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” Inside, she wrote that the quote had always reminded her of me.
I realized I had been looking at it all wrong. I wasn’t a try-hard, I was someone who tried, and cared.
Slowly, I stopped apologizing for how much I cared. I found that, at Northwestern, most people cared just as much. I started to appreciate being surrounded by students who wore their ambition openly, who didn’t hide how hard they worked or how deeply they felt.
I love being at a school where I don’t have to pretend not to care about my grades. Where I can walk out of a job interview and say to my friends, “I want this so badly.” Where passion isn’t embarrassing, but expected.
That same spirit defines The Daily. My peers at the paper care deeply — about student journalism, about truth, and about one another. Working here has reminded me that caring isn’t just admirable; it’s essential.
In the end, caring is what got me here: graduating from Northwestern with a degree in Journalism and International Studies and starting a job on a U.S. Senate campaign after graduation. I’m proud to say I am cool and accomplished because I care, not in spite of it.
I would not be where I am today without the incredible people at Northwestern and The Daily. So I want to say thank you, for challenging me, for inspiring me, and most of all, for caring.
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