2008 Woodie Awards
Making, losing, and wasting time
Aubrey Roff
Issue date: 2/19/04 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
I had a frightening realization as I was driving home from work on Sunday night. We only have three months left to this semester. In fact, our summer is going to be longer than the time we have left in school. This revelation made me contemplate why time seems so different in college.
Most people in the "real world" go through their weeks on a relatively steady basis. Work Monday through Friday, and relax on the weekends. Or at least some variation of that set schedule. Even in high school, we went to school for the same time every day, and our after-school jobs had some sort of consistency.
But in this bubble we call college, things are much different. The only schedule that is dependable is classes, and with cancellations, midterms, finals, and those "need-to-skip" days, even that isn't something that you can rely on. Your work schedule is constantly changing, you have different amounts of homework to do every night, and there's always a different marathon on VH1. College life is anything but dependable, and that makes time go by much differently.
Unlike most people who hold out for Friday night to unwind and relax, college students yearn for random events such as Tuesday drink specials, or Thursday afternoon Happy Hour. We make plans for all the stuff that we are going to accomplish on the weekends, only to spend them doing nothing, and planning more things that we aren't going to do. Some days seem to drag by endlessly, while others feel like they pass in the blink of an eye.
We measure time differently, with various methods and increments. Years are measured in semesters and breaks. Days are divided into the one-hour-and-fifteen-minute blocks of class, and half-hour slots of TV
programming. Work is measured in four, six, and eight-hour shifts. Homework and papers pass by the number of songs played on your computer, with interruptions of instant messages distracting you. Nights out are measured in numbers of drinks, amounts of money spent and the periodic glances at your watch to decide whether it's too early, or too late.
But no matter how you measure your time, or how quickly or slowly it seems to pass, in the end, it always goes too fast. You only have four years in college: to wear pajamas to class, to drink until sunrise, to watch TV all day with your friends, and to blame all your mistakes and shortcomings on the fact that you're a college student. Eventually you're going to have to enter the real world. But until then, enjoy every moment of college, whether you're happy, bored, busy, sober, drunk, tired, awake, or several things at once. Because before you know it, it all will pass.
Most people in the "real world" go through their weeks on a relatively steady basis. Work Monday through Friday, and relax on the weekends. Or at least some variation of that set schedule. Even in high school, we went to school for the same time every day, and our after-school jobs had some sort of consistency.
But in this bubble we call college, things are much different. The only schedule that is dependable is classes, and with cancellations, midterms, finals, and those "need-to-skip" days, even that isn't something that you can rely on. Your work schedule is constantly changing, you have different amounts of homework to do every night, and there's always a different marathon on VH1. College life is anything but dependable, and that makes time go by much differently.
Unlike most people who hold out for Friday night to unwind and relax, college students yearn for random events such as Tuesday drink specials, or Thursday afternoon Happy Hour. We make plans for all the stuff that we are going to accomplish on the weekends, only to spend them doing nothing, and planning more things that we aren't going to do. Some days seem to drag by endlessly, while others feel like they pass in the blink of an eye.
We measure time differently, with various methods and increments. Years are measured in semesters and breaks. Days are divided into the one-hour-and-fifteen-minute blocks of class, and half-hour slots of TV
programming. Work is measured in four, six, and eight-hour shifts. Homework and papers pass by the number of songs played on your computer, with interruptions of instant messages distracting you. Nights out are measured in numbers of drinks, amounts of money spent and the periodic glances at your watch to decide whether it's too early, or too late.
But no matter how you measure your time, or how quickly or slowly it seems to pass, in the end, it always goes too fast. You only have four years in college: to wear pajamas to class, to drink until sunrise, to watch TV all day with your friends, and to blame all your mistakes and shortcomings on the fact that you're a college student. Eventually you're going to have to enter the real world. But until then, enjoy every moment of college, whether you're happy, bored, busy, sober, drunk, tired, awake, or several things at once. Because before you know it, it all will pass.