Being out of school for a long time I really can appreciate the educational environment. You wake up, you go to class you get out of class and if you don't work today (or don't have a job at all like some students) then you're done! That is what it meants to be IN SCHOOL. It might be only 12:30pm and you've got nothing else on your plate for the day - officially.
Now unofficially, your day may have just begun. While enrolled IN SCHOOL you are somewhat free to do as you like, however unlike work you are paying them. So when you are not actually in class you are not actually free to do nothing. Not at all! This is where the majority of your responsibilities will find you. If you are not actually IN SCHOOL then you probably have projects and papers, readings and assignments, books to skim and summaries to write.
Lets contrast this to being AT WORK. When you are AT WORK you have to wake up, go to work, and spend your entire day there, AT WORK. When you do get out (at the same time everyday – or thereabouts that’s it, you're done! You are not expected (most of the time) to do anything else because you are not actually AT WORK.
See when I worked 30-40 hours a week over the past two years, I had so much free time. For the first time in my life I began to understand how crappy television can become popular, because there is really just nothing else to do with one’s time when you are not AT WORK or IN SCHOOL. It’s fascinating to think of all the free time we really have and all that we could be doing and instead we sit in front of a computer or video screen and do nothing.
Really the difference between IN SCHOOL and AT WORK is that IN SCHOOL never ends. AT WORK (for many people) is just 40 hours a week. How many hours are there in a week? One Hundred and Sixty Eight in a WEEK. That’s a lot of frickin’ hours. Lets see then so if AT WORK = 40 plus the ideal (not even average) SLEEP of Eight hours per night then we get:
(WEEK – (AT WORK +(SLEEP x 7))) = FREE WORK
(168 – (40 + (8 x 7))) = 72!!
You know what this means? When you are working full time, if you only work from 9 to 5 every day and you get the recommended amount of sleep every night that leaves 3 days of your week open for free time.
I regardless, I find it fascinating that we spend so much time doing things and complaining about it only to spend so much time then NOT doing things. There are people out there that take advantage of their FREE TIME. I am often envious. We try and fill our precious FREE TIME with activities like GYM or RECREATION or SPORT, but when do we fill it with HELPING OTHERS, or MEETING NEW PEOPLE, or VOLUNTEERING, or MENTORING.
72 hours a week to do anything we like and all we do is WATCH TV, and TRY TO GET TO THE MEDIA-IDEAL BODY TYPE?
My favorite excuse for not going for a walk in the District of Columbia is: “But ____ is on tv tonight!” This is the internet age, if you don’t have a DVR you can always find it somewhere online. There used to be this advanced piece of equipment called the V – C – R that recorded the stuff that came out of the TV box… I find it funny that we moved forward from VCR to DVD and lost that capability.
Regardless, this meandering post illustrates one thing. I am IN SCHOOL, and I should be doing something productive, but instead here I am in front of my computer doing this instead. I guess after all this my Dad was right, “Talk is cheap.” I guess blogs might be even cheaper.
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