Time is a weird thing. Sometimes it drags on, inching along as slow as a snail, and at other times it rushes by with dizzying speed. During a sports season, I have to do my homework in a significantly smaller amount of time than I would when I'm not in a sport. Working under this stress and pressure actually makes me work more quickly.
I'm mentioning this right now because next week I'm going to have a lot more time on my hands, because cross country season is almost over. I'll have several extra hours every day to do my homework or, more likely, to waste and procrastinate.
I'm sad that cross country is ending. While I'll be happy to have more free time, and I probably won't miss the tough workouts, it's a bittersweet ending. I still have next year's season, but it'll be different. For one thing, there will be new freshman. This year's seniors will be gone. Even crazier, I'll be a senior.
It's hard to believe that my high school career is more than halfway over. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting my first day of subbie year, lugging a backpack full of supplies for subbie science and wondering if I would make new friends. Though the long nights of studying seemed to drag by slowly, the time has passed so quickly.
College -- and the future -- is quickly approaching, and yet a complete mystery. While some days I may want to escape this town, I'm definitely not ready for it yet. For now, I'm trying to savor every moment and slow down time. I don't have unlimited time, but I want to make the most of my remaining time in high school. I wish I had realized as a subbie that five years at Uni would pass by so quickly, so I could've taken advantage of all the opportunities offered to me. Now, with less than two years left, I'm just wishing that I could have more time.
Alana, I think many of us can probably relate to this post. There are so many things to do in life, and we can't do them all. Those of us who are inspired to try to do as much as we can sometimes feel overwhelmed with the "too much to do, too little time" problem, as well as that feeling of yearning over what we didn't do that we could've done. As someone who's gone much further down the road of life, I will say this: You'll enjoy your life more and get a lot more out of it if you spend most of your energy looking ahead and less looking back. It's important to look back sometimes, to savor the beautiful and important moments, and also to contemplate things you wish you'd done differently or could learn from. But as long as you keep learning from your mistakes and don't allow yourself to get lazy and give up your passions in favor of more passive endeavors, you shouldn't have much to really regret. Even slack time is important sometimes. We aren't machines.
ReplyDeleteNever fall into the trap of believing that "this is the only time in my life that I can do X," though. That's rarely the case. True, you can't wait 'til you're 55 to have your first child. You probably won't be able to run a marathon if you wait to start training 'til you retire from your job in your mid-sixties (though that one's probably not impossible). But if you want to learn to play the harp or learn Portuguese, don't feel like you can't do it because you're "tool old." You're rarely truly too old to begin something, if you're really committed to doing it. And just because you become an adult, you don't have to give up your passions. I always get sad when I meet someone my own age or older who says "Oh, I don't really listen to music anymore" (What?) or "I was an artist, but I haven't done that in years" (Why not?). If someone chooses to give up something they love in favor of another way to spend their time and energy, that's one thing, but we should never get too busy or too "grown up" to do the things we really love.
(And that's my rant for the day :)
Although I always wish that I could have more time, I agree with you that working under pressure actually makes me work more quickly. Whenever I have more free time, I end up wasting it away watching movies or something. I guess stress is a good way to keep us productive and force us to manage our time well.
ReplyDelete-Sherry
I, for one, don't like time since I waste a lot of it away.
ReplyDeleteI think that stress gets me motivated more than I actually motivate myself (which is kind of sad), and I always get a warm, fuzzy feeling after I finish everything.
It is very important to manage your time. Ask your questions before the day of the quiz/exam/whatever. Don't wait until the last minute since anything done last minute is likely to be of poor quality anyways. (Unless it's music, then you can put it off and work a miracle when you perform.)
Shawn