PAGE 38 VOL. 1, NO. 1 ZEITGEIST done so far has been in vain. So arises an anger at the world: why wasn’t my work rewarded? Why has the world evaluated me unfairly? Why, after all this toil, has the boulder thumped and clunked its way back to the bottom of the mountain? This sounds familiar. When the universe has frustrated our efforts despite our hard work and the overwhelming hope we clutched to before decision day, we are encountering absurdity. Rationally, if you believe in an atheistic and materialist universe where no grand schemes of fate or fortune operate above us, there’s no reason why the world ought to reward us. We could be crushed by a falling anvil tomorrow or the sun could explode for no reason at all, and still the universe would be working just as intended. Let us repeat: existence is fundamentally frustrating. If we take a brief excursion to the /r/ApplyingToCollege and /r/CollegeResults subreddits, we can find many dejected users grappling with this absurdity. Like us, these online students are extraordinarily qualified and outrageously hardworking. They come from all walks of life and all regions of the globe. Do these people deserve to achieve their grandest college dreams? Absolutely. Did all of them achieve those grand visions? Certainly not. As one student lamented, With a 1570 SAT, 4.0+ weighted GPA at high rigor, seven leadership positions, 750 volunteer hours, a selective HYPSM research internship, major national news coverage, shotgunning 25+ colleges - I couldn't even get into a T50? To discuss the idea of revolt in concrete terms - and to ease myself out of this obnoxiously melodramatic tone - let’s discuss how Camusian philosophy applies in our everyday lives. Consider for a moment the college application process. Our college acceptances are the cumulative product of many years of hard work, and not just during high school, but during the entirety of our lives. We millions of students across the world have poured years of hope and ambition into getting into our dream colleges, and as of the day I’m writing this section, our last major decisions have finally come out. In the aftermath of late March, culminating in Ivy Day, we have walked away from the application process with our dreams dashed or with results beyond our most far-fetched fantasies. Of course, I firstly wish to congratulate each and every one of you for the immense amount of work you’ve put in, and for everything you’ve accomplished at this school so far. I’m going to briefly contradict the argument I’m about to put forth and offer this bite of truth: if you are an amazing person (and you are), you are going to do amazing things in college and beyond. The work you’ve put in will lead to great achievements, I promise. This pays remembering not only for us seniors but for all you bright-eyed underclassmen as well. Don’t sweat it! Everything will turn out just the way it’s meant to be. That being said, I know it’s been difficult for everyone who hasn’t gotten the results they wanted. There are plenty of horror stories about students who applied to dozens of schools and got rejected by every single one. In response to such unfavorable results, it’s easy to feel as if everything that you’ve Revolt in Action
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