Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Do you ever find yourself wishing your life away?  I've recently come into some free time (thanks, graduation!) and don't have any idea what to do with myself.  At 10:30 this morning I went to graduation rehearsal and tonight at 5:00 I have a Happy Hour.  That leaves a little over 6 hours of time I need to fill. . . .

Here are some examples of my thoughts over the last four years:
"If I had some free time I could read that book."  -Ryan, 2nd year, elbow deep in projects to   complete with no time to complete them

"Why is there always something good on TV when I have things to do?" - Ryan, third year,  final exams week

"I wish that I could go to the mall today." - Ryan, fourth year, studying for the National Boards

So here I sit, about two more hours to kill and I don't have a book handy, there isn't anything good on television and I've already been to the mall.  I think that as a whole, we (we, as in the larger society) have been trained to run the hamster wheel all day long.  Get up, go to work/school, complete tasks/study, come home, rinse and repeat.  The idea of taking a vacation is just as stressful as your daily routine because you know that when you get back you'll have a full inbox and a stack of To-do's on top of your desk that seems daunting.  

I'm about to hop off my old hamster wheel, the one that runs like a well-oiled machine.  It doesn't squeak and I hardly need to push to get it to turn.  Off of the old wheel and onto the new - it's bigger, it's heavier and it comes with a lot more responsibility.  

Today I needed to kill 6 hours. . .starting Saturday, I'll have six weeks to fill before I start turning the new wheel.  Any ideas how to fill my time?

2 comments:

  1. Let me help you out. As you may or may not know, I haven't worked since January and am taking only 2 classes (online) this semester. Therefore, I have very little that I actually have to do during the day. However, I take it as a point of pride that I never ever find myself bored and I feel like I accomplish something every day. I run between 3-5 miles almost every day, I experiment with learning to cook all sorts of healthy meals, I make myself read at least 50 pages in whatever book I'm reading at the moment and I make sure I'm caught up on all the recent news, blogs and other various internet items. Oh yeah, occasionally do some homework too. If I'm not working, I feel like I need to be learning or experiencing something productive all the time. In the last few weeks I've built a patio and garden and am learning to grow my own organic vegetables.

    It's all in how you look at free time. Most people don't know what to do with it since they have so little of it. However, if you cultivate it well, "free time" isn't really free time. I feel as if my days are more involved than the days I spent 12 hours at EFP working my ass off.

    That said, let me know if you need to fill some of your free time with disc golfing.

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  2. Love the HIMYM reference!

    I have an idea - come to NYC and hang out with me and Kate. :)

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