Urgency

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>24 hours. 1440 minutes. 86,400 seconds. </p>

<p>70 years. 600,000 some odd hours. 36 million some odd minutes. We spend a third of our lives sleeping. 400,000 some odd hours left. </p>

<p>Many days, I sit around in class, eyes on the teacher, but mind wandering. When will the class be over? When? Bell rings. I almost jump out my seat. Oh, wait, that bell isn’t applicable to people who have a later lunch :(! </p>

<p>Most wouldn’t beg for money to be withdrawn from their bank accounts. Yet I know that my sentiments are shared by high schoolers across the world. We sit, and we hope that the hour could only pass faster. Yet we only have what, 400,000 some odd hours of consciousness? And that’s not counting the fact that we only spend a small proportion of these 400,000 hours in our youths, our primes. Nor is it counting the fact that we are sometimes robbed of our times - accidents, faith, the greater good, part of an elaborate plan - whatever you call it, things happen. </p>

<p>I write this as I sit at home, in the lull of summer, and squander my time. I’ve lost my initial enthusiasm for summer. I now only sit down for hours upon end, surfing websites instead of doing something worthwhile, wishing that dinner would come faster instead of relishing every minute, and yet paradoxically dreading the start of school. I want time to speed up in the short-run, yet I want time to slow down in the long-run. I can’t have it both ways. In fact, I can’t have it anyway. I don’t dictate the speed of my biological clock. A doctor and drugs can, but only to a small extent. </p>

<p>I hope to regain the sense of urgency I had. It’s already evening, and I still haven’t done anything productive today. The same thing goes for yesterday. And yesterday’s yesterday. And so on. Hopefully, the same thing will not go for tomorrow. I hope to be rejuvenated by tomorrow and ready to start anew on the last leg of summer 2012. Only a few precious weeks separate me from the beginning of school. It’s time to really start relishing every moment :).</p>

2

<p>Awww I liked the last sentence :)</p>

<p>I was expecting you to be like “Sitting in a classroom and thinking about what a waste of life this is!” :stuck_out_tongue: sometimes I feel like education is too time consuming… Speaking of which, I wonder how many hours of our lives we spend K-12 in a classroom… I don’t really wanna know :P</p>

3

<p>Reminded me of an old eMail I got from a chum:</p>

<p>First, I was dying to finish my high school and start college.
And then I was dying to finish college and start working.
Then I was dying to marry and have children.
And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough so I could go back to work.
But then I was dying to retire.</p>

<p>And now I’m dying. Suddenly I realized that I forgot to live.</p>

<p>It’s pretty anomalizing isn’t it?</p>

4

<p>Really great post! It makes me want to actually start working on my summer homework now :D</p>

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<p>Finally someone like me. I think about lost time soooo much. I count hours left in the day, etc. This reminds me of the book “The BFG” where the giant talks about how humans waste half of their lives sleeping.</p>

6

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<p>It’s OK. Let me quench that thirst for knowledge. </p>

<p>Here are the assumptions:</p>

<p>1) We attend every grade from Pre-K to 12th grade
2) We spend 8 hours a day at school
3) A school year is 180 days long
4) We have perfect attendance</p>

<p>13 years * 180 days = 2340 days spent at school. </p>

<p>2340 days * 8 hours a day = 18,720 hours spent at school (not counting college and graduate school). </p>

<p>It’s amazing how fast we can absorb information. 18,720 hours. From finger-painting to calculus.</p>

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<p>Thank you :). The last sentence is always a good place for a “clincher.” People tend to remember what they read (or hear) last, explaining why chiasmus is such an effective literary technique. </p>

<p>“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country”</p>

<p>This phenomenon also partly explains why Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar resonated more with the rabble than Brutus’ speech. </p>

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<p>It is. As your email illustrates, we try to have it both ways. We want to accelerate through the boring parts of life to reach the exciting parts. Unfortunately, the more exciting parts are ephemeral, and before we know it, we want life to slow down again. </p>

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<p>We can both start tomorrow ;). </p>

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<p>Roald Dahl embeds some interesting messages in this books. I distinctly remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in which the father works at a dehumanizing toothpaste factory. His line of work exemplifies Marx’s theory of worker alienation. </p>

<p>All the father does is screw caps on tubes of toothpaste. He’s just a cog in an impersonal machine. Like a cog, he’s replaceable. Doesn’t like his job? Fine - go walk out. I can easily find another worker, another cog. And like a cog, he’s just performing a small and mundane task. He’s not the machine itself, but one of its component parts.</p>

<p>It’s amazing that I’ve gone from reading those little books to classic works of literature.</p>

7

<p>This is the best post I’ve seen from you because I can relate to it so well… Spending hours, glazing my eyes over redundant CollegeConfidential threads…</p>

<p>It’s time to seize the day… Carpe diem.</p>

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<p>:D!! I’ll go off to bed now, happily :). It’s way way past my bedtime and waking up at 1 PM everyday is taking a large proportion of time away from my precious few hours of daylight. Carpe diem, and semper paratus!</p>