Small note, for context: I'm currently taking a public speaking class, and the last assignment that we did was motivational speaking, part of our "special occasions" unit. I decided, after our discussion on Thursday(? I believe) to write about the messed up way we in America view time. This is meant to be spoken, but I like the way it came out written, as well. My hope is that the humor still translates through the words. Enjoy!
A couple of days ago, in my English class, we had a discussion about how the language we speak influences our perceptions of the world...it sounds riveting, I know. And I could give you the whole TEDTalk edition, just spout statistics at you for twenty minutes, but that would be not only mind-numbingly boring, but also plagiarism. So I’m going to give you the short version.
English-speakers tend to use certain metaphors to talk about activities or abstract concepts. We talk about arguments and sports like warfare -- “I crushed them,” “Our offense was devastating,” “We killed it,” “They couldn't handle our defense.” In class, we said this makes us more competitive. We were also shown a study about English versus Spanish speakers. It showed clips of people accidentally breaking things, and people were told to describe what happened; English speakers said, “Jenny broke the vase.” Spanish speakers said, “The vase broke.” From this we concluded that English speakers are more prone to blaming and finger-pointing than Spanish speakers, and other languages where sentences are less performative. Up until this point, I had agreed with the majority of the class. Then we read about the metaphors we use to talk about time.
Consider the way you talk about time. “I spent an hour on that project.” “How will you spend your summer vacation?” “Stop wasting my time.” And of course, most simply, “Time is money.” How does that affect us? If you’re like most of the students in my class, you’d say, well, that makes us more frugal with our time. It makes us do more and value our lives more. It makes us more productive and focused. But the first thought I had upon confronting this link was, wow, that’s kind of messed up.
See, yeah, viewing time like a commodity makes us more thankful for the time we have. If you view it as a limited thing, you’ll try and cram every second of your life full of activity. On the flip side, though…people these days are so stressed, y’know? As technology and education advance, students are expected to learn more, know more, do more, plan more. Getting into a good college is years of preparation, months of stressing over exams and volunteering time at random community service projects. I mean, I’m 16 years old, and people are already asking me what I want to do when I’m older. If I want to pursue art as a career. What colleges I’m going to apply to. It’s like, I’m 16. I’m barely a quarter of the way into my life and I’m already expected to be planning for decisions that will impact me years and years down the road. I’m not even good at picking what to eat for breakfast every morning.
Our generation will benefit from the most diverse catalogue of medicine and biology, lengthening our lifespans and making us healthier humans. What I mean is, we are expected to live longer than anyone else has ever lived. So why are we so stressed about what we do when we’re in our teenage years? If I’m 16 right now, and the average life expectancy in America is 78, why is everyone acting like this is the time that will either set me up for a happy life or condemn me to a life of sadness? Why is everyone expecting me to know what I want to do for the next 60 years of my life within the first 18?
The older I get, the more I realize how harmful this outlook is. I’m doing my best to break free from it. I mean, yeah, the future is important, and you should prepare yourself for it, but that doesn’t mean you have to think about college or your career or your life goals every second, 365, 24/7. You should consider what you want to do with your life but you should also know what you’re doing with your life. I guess what I mean is, do things now, too; don’t kill yourself with stress and regimented anxiety just for society’s alluring promise of “eventual happiness.”
Get some cheap art supplies and paint something stupid. Write music you’ll never, EVER want to listen to. Sing songs off-key and twerk in your kitchen like you’re in a club. Let yourself have fun now, and don’t let anybody convince you that you’re screwing yourself over by doing so. Don’t let someone convince you that you’ve got a pool of happiness and someday if you used too much of it now, it’ll dry up in your old age. I promise you that won’t happen.
Relax. Try something new. Try something and don’t think of it as something that will impact your future. Stop counting calories on indulgent activities and start relishing the taste. Take a nap. Take a selfie. Watch a cute animal video.
None of this stuff is as big of a waste of time as worrying that you’re wasting your time.
