Time to kill

I was speaking with a university student recently about his plans for summer. The college university crowd have an extra month or 2 holidays in the summer depending on exams. He had rather large plans filled with learning and opportunity. He even had a month long trip to a somewhat poorer nation planned. All in the interest of making the most of his time off. I have to admit that I prefer my time off to be more leisurely, camping, fishing, movies and generally slowing down the pace of my life,however, I admired this kid for what he was doing.
At some other point I spoke to another person... same situation, long summer holidays and the same question came up. What are you planning this summer. His answer was surprising at first, but equally impressive in it's own right. He said ; "Well, I have just over 4 months. In that time I could start to learn a new language, travel, pick up a musical instrument, really the world is my oyster","So which will it be ?", I asked. He said; "I'm going to read lots of Manga(Japanese graphic novels), watch lots of Anime(Those novels turned into animated shows) and play X-box". What I heard was "I'm going to read comics, watch cartoons and play video games". He went on to explaine that throughout the school year, his whole life was essays, lectures and exams. This is his reward for getting it all done. Well ,sound logic. I have to admit that I was equally impressed.
I was impressed because he made a choice. I may look at what this kid is doing as a waste of time, heck he might too, but he is choosing to do it. Why is that so impressive? I'm sure that I am not the only one who has had a day off, slept in, woke up and mindlessly channel surfed for a couple(few hours)... checked my e-mail and a few hours later, got up for the next mindless task. At the end of one of those days we usually feel like "Where has the day gone?", and it's true, the day was wasted. We didn't choose to waste the day, we didn't choose anything, and so it was wasted for us. At the end of a day like that I feel somehow ... less than myself, if that makes any sense at all. That day would have felt totally different, I think, if I had chosen to do that. Maybe when I woke up, maybe the day before. then in my doing nothing I really would have accomplished .... something. I could have been looking forward to that all week.

I guess I am writing this because it's a weakness of mine. Someone said "Time is fleeting", and it's true. Most of us get up and go to work 5 days a week, because we have too. After work there are meals to prepare, lawns to be mowed, people to take care of. Our time really isn't ours, it seems to belong to everyone else. So those moments that are truly ours, should be treated almost with reverence. It's ok to be super busy doing something that you love, or hang out doing nothing at all. What makes the time ours and so precious is that we choose to do what ever we end up doing, and not end up watching "Maury" or"The View" because we haven't chosen anything at all.

Something to think about


Then again... maybe that's just me .


Peace Kiddies :-)