Monday: You worked on a PowerPoint presentation for your journalism class until one o'clock, a.m. Get up at seven o'clock, a.m. Make yourself presentable by seven forty-five. Rush to the cafeteria to grab breakfast and take it with you to journalism by eight o'clock. Take good notes between bites of bagel and sips of coffee. Class at nine. Class at ten. Class at eleven. Lunch at twelve. Print out Spanish homework at half past twelve and get to class at one. Homework until two fifty. Writing Center at three. Homework until half past six. Dinner until seven. Homework until ten or eleven. Bedtime.
Tuesday: Up at eight, a.m. Writing Center staff meeting at nine. No breakfast. Class at half past nine. Early lunch/meeting with professor at eleven. Homework. WC at two. Homework. Dinner at 5:30. Class at 6:30. Homework until 9:30. Stay up with friend until 11:00 because you've both had too much caffeine just in order to stay awake. Bed.
Wednesday: 7:00 a.m. - up! (You decline the day's invitation by hitting snooze.) 7:15- UP! (OK, OK!) ready by 7:50. run! snatch b'fast. run! 8:00 - class. 9:00 - class. 10:00 - class. 11:00 - class. 12:00 - yb interview over lunch. 1:00 - class. 2:00 - gather books and computer for hw...change earrings (You grabbed the first ones you saw this morning with no thought to whether they actually added anything to your appearance.) ...pass mirror... (You are wearing two different earrings, by the way.) sigh deeply...head to student center for hw...open computer...sigh...(In the student center, two of your fellow students have fallen asleep, with half-a-dozen more quickly following. Only one appears lucid and productive, and he isn't you.) sigh...pray...
This has been my week so far, and it's fairly typical. Many of those which follow will be much busier. And I have it terribly easy compared to a good number of my acquaintances. I'm letting you know all this, dear reader, not to ask pity for either myself or my friends. I simply wish to question the status quo.
I feel this is a good time to insert a clarification which my initial post may not have made. Ancora Imparo is a blog of questions, not of answers. The very title means "I am still learning." (I confess I lifted it from Michelangelo.) I often struggle with pride, and this is part of my effort to humble myself. I may occasionally offer an opinion, but I don't want you to take anything I say as though I meant to be telling you definitive truth. I want to hear your opinions and derive from them whatever wisdom you have to offer. The idea is to exchange ideas and consider them one-by-one. So decide for yourself which of my musings can help you seek answers, which provide an opportunity for you to help others find answers, and which speak to your soul and situation.
That said, let us continue. My topic is rest because I am learning its value with every passing day. My question is this: How do we find peace while bettering ourselves and contributing to the world?
Here at college, I feel I am accomplishing only one of these goals: bettering myself. It is the most self-focused of the three. I don't say "selfish" because I think my education will prepare me to better serve the world. However, there is no point in focusing on personal growth unless we intend to one day use it for other persons.
We so seldom reach outside ourselves. These days, it seems that all my conversations are either all business or mere polite exchanges. We pass friends in the halls and say, "Hey! How are you?" to which they almost inevitably reply, "Doing good, thanks," whether they are or not because neither conversational participant has time for the truth. This should not be.
There is certainly something to be said for the concept of the Sabbath - one day of the week dedicated to resting and reorganizing our thoughts, plans, and priorities. I find that weeks in which I dedicate one day as a Sabbath tend to go much more smoothly. The more my life fills up, the more I become dependent on this day for my own sanity. But the goal of the Sabbath is to repair our individual relationships with God and rethink our own lives. So where does that leave community and fellowship? How do we find time to cultivate meaningful relationships with one another?
I have no answer, nor even an approach to one for the questions I have posed, so I leave you with the challenge of helping me find one. Please give me and your fellow readers any thoughts you have on this post, and perhaps we can arrive at some sort of conclusion together.
Thank you for reading. :)
I can really relate to what you said about college being something that betters self but doesn't help other people per se. I do usually feel like it's what I'm supposed to be doing at this point in my life, but I have often wondered if there were other things that I could do to better serve my family and other people.
ReplyDeleteSo I really don't have any answers... but I can at least agree with the questions.
ps. So you were telling the truth when Dr. Turner asked if you had a blog :)
I can relate to what you have said in this. Unfortunately I don't already have a year of this under my belt of learning experiences. I have been at college for over a month now, and I have nothing outside of academic improvement to show for it. The only relationships I have that have grown is that with people I had already known, and even then they have grown pitifully little. I Don't mean to sound like I am complaining. I'm more worried than anything else. This is the time that I am becoming the man that I intend to be for basically the rest of my life. This being said, I feel like I don't have to time to figure out who I want to be. Perhaps things will improve with time as I pick up some time management skills, but you know how impatient I can be. Will things improve, or is this the "real world"?
ReplyDeleteI came back to this a couple of moments later with a clearer mind and realized a couple of things.
One, I don't need to be trying to figure out who I want me to be as much as finding out who God wants me to be.
Second, it is what we do in the high stress situations and busy times of life that show who we really are at our core. If I want to be a better man I cannot use the excuse that I am to busy, or to tired. I have to change in the high stress situation however hard it may be. Only then can I know I have changed permanently in a positive manner.
Thirdly, I think it is the relationships carefully forged and cut out in the busy times that stick with us longest and deepest. Somewhere inside we know that time is precious even more during these times; so we distribute it with more wisdom. When we intentionally make contact during these times we are saying, "I care enough about to make contact despite all the other productive things I could be doing. I would rather talk to you than spend fifteen minutes studying -insert absolutely evil class here-". When something is rare it is more valuable. When something is is valuable we show more care about sharing it and those we share it with can appreciate it more. (I am assuming that those that are being shared with know how valuable that time is.)
That's my humble opinion. Critique and criticize all you want!
I just came back to this after...What has it been two years? This post contains so much truth that my time at college has now proven to me. Thanks, Rob! :)
DeleteRob, Amen! and Let it be so! (Redundant, I know.) And may I add that there are natural phases to life? My life, for more than twenty years now, has been dedicated to my calling to serve my family and raise my children. This does not mean that I must neglect all others, but it does mean that my primary focus is on successfully nocking my arrows and launching them towards the goal. I highly value the friends who enrich my life and encourage my calling. Robert, your mother is one of those people, but even with her, I know that the relationship is casual at best. As each arrow flies from the nock, my quiver will have more and more room to serve others. It is my hope that those I encounter, serve, and with whom I forge deeper relationships will understand and appreciate where my focus has been for almost thirty years by the time my last arrow flies.
ReplyDelete