College sequesters 18 to 22-year olds; it takes them away from normal society for four years and then re-distributes them into the job market. During this time, stress levels skyrocket, brains expand, and many college educated creatures are instilled with a value system that aligns with our current capitalistic system. One of these core values has to do with working hard, working fast, and never stopping. This is how capitalism tells us that we will be the best.
“Productivity” is a word that will make many workaholics seize with pleasure, but what really lies beyond the emotional satisfaction of four or five productive hours in the library?
We regiment ourselves according to “productive time” in the framework of classes, work, and jobs. That being said, I love work the same way a house elf loves to clean. It is precisely my adoration of homework that has prompted me to get away from “clock time” or “productive time,” and, instead, focus on not just “relaxing,” but actively not working and not forcing myself to work if it happens to be 9:30 pm.
All too often, I will feel the anticipatory pricklings of pre-homework excitement, not unlike a heroin addict, and after too many hits of phenomenology readings, I will collapse at 4:00 am. Even though I am obsessively passionate about work, I have found that, if I do too much I will have zero desire to work on outside creative projects or read on my own time. It took me until this year to realize that not working is just as important as working and that reading for pleasure is just as if not more important than reading for class. You don’t want to become the person whose only reading comes from suggested articles of the New York Times.
It’s so so important to read what you truly want on your own damn time. I’ve spent the past three years in college reading at odd hours, in between rehearsals, meetings, and classes. Now, I refuse to limit literary pleasure to the cracks in between my schedule. I have decided to leave the capitalist time I’ve been situated in and have been spending every single Friday afternoon doing absolutely zero homework and instead making a respectable nest and reading David Sedaris’s, Me Talk Pretty One Day.
There’s a widespread belief that the busier you are, the better. Feeling burnt-out because you’re involved in six things that you only kinda care about will make you absolutely miserable. In 10 years, you will not look fondly back on the time that you attended three classes, two clubs and three rehearsals in one day while also half-assing an essay. There are so many people who stop reading after college, and it’s so so important to be active in the material that you fill your mind with and equally important to take a break from the capitalistic culture of productivity. So, I implore you put aside your obligations and to take control of your own damn time!