Professional resumes, the bane of the unemployed’s
existence. A mere snapshot into a person’s life and one that will judge whether
or not an employer will welcome you into their co-op. However, there’s an even
trickier application form that we are faced to acknowledge almost daily, the
one that concentrates more on who we know, our hobbies and if we’re getting
enough exercise – our social CV.
We have all come across a friend from a thousand years B.U.
(that’s, Before Uni) who has caught us with the dreaded question of ‘What have
you been up to?’ These occasions usually appear when we’re running an errand in
yesterday’s clothes and worse at a time when we don’t have a lot to say for ourselves
except ‘not much’.
This happened to me quite recently. I was out shopping and a
girl who I knew from high school clocked me as I was perusing the three quid
rom coms in Tesco. The inevitable happened and before I could even begin to think
of an interesting way to say ‘sales assistant’ I was asking her how her life
was instead.
‘I’m a school teacher,’ bam! ‘I’m married,’ bam! ‘We’ve just
bought a house together,’ bam! ‘My knitting blog’s getting really popular,’
bam! Every box ticked.
For me there are various categories we can fill in order to
make up our personal CV. There’s work, relationships and of course the often
neglected, hobbies section. Similar to the Greek theory of the Four Humours,
when these elements are out of balance we feel at a loss or attempt to justify
ourselves by making up our own equations of what equals public happiness.
These days everyone has a blog, can bake a decent cupcake,
play guitar and so it becomes increasingly difficult to separate yourself from
others and as a result some of us simply can’t be bothered to shout about the
things we do that make us interesting.
My dad once told me that if you play a musical instrument
you will be the life and soul of the party. I believed him until the indie wave
of 2005 hit and it just so happened that every relative in existence could belt
out a semi decent rendition of Wonderwall.
Likewise, if we don’t have these things to shout about we’re
equally quiet and left to feel bad about not pushing some quirky side project.
In a world where everyone seems to dabble in everything, it
becomes even harder to let yourself relax and be okay with simply going to work
and happily coming home to cram an entire season of Breaking Bad into one
evening.
Soon after my old school friend and I had finished our
conversation and I had gotten over my initial irrational quarter-life panic, I
stopped to think about the things I should have said.
Sometimes, as with any good CV, you have to get over the
fear of being too confident. Of course no one likes a show off and sure you
might not be the only member of your family who can pull off four chords, but
it’s good to show that you can.
