<p>Prompt: If you rest, you rust. --Helen Hayes</p>
<p>The statement above argues that those who fail to strive regress. Write an essay supporting, disputing, or qualifying the statement.</p>
<pre><code>Helen Hayes takes a firm stand against indolence when she says, “If you rest, you rust.” Though indolence is commonly considered a sin at worst a waste at best, our negative attitude toward rest is detrimental. Rest is critical to progress because it enables us to function well and it helps us set appropriate goals.
Rest is vital to our ability to function at our best. Recent new stories report those scientists are learning surprising things about the importance of sleep. Lack of adequate rest impairs brain function, so much so that sleep experts have been able to measure drops in IQ in patients who are deprived of sleep. Other studies have demonstrated a negative impact on brain function and coordination in sleep-deprived subjects. It should not, therefore, be a surprise that the California Highway Patrol has stated that sleep-deprived drivers are as great a threat to road safety as are drunk drivers.
Rest is important for more than just brain function. Those who are caught up in extremely busy lives lack the time to think about what they are doing and gain perspective. Busyness may prevent “rust,” but it does not encourage us to maximize our potential. My older brother learned this lesson when he took a year off from school before college. In high school he had been a straight-A student, staying up all night in search of perfect grades. It was only when he took a year off from school to travel that he had the time to think about what he really wanted to do, to consider goals beyond grades. In that year off, my brother had a chance to figure out what he genuinely enjoyed. He returned to school knowing that he want to be a writer, and this knowledge is helping him achieve something of real value.
Time off to sleep and think is critical to our ability to recognize what is important, and our ability to achieve it. It does not, however, follow from this that we would be better off on a permanent vacation. Rest is critical because it allows us to perform well when we work. It is not an end in itself.
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<p>*******I did NOT write this essay, by the way.</p>