As Notre Dame students, we are swamped.
We constantly chase lost minutes as we work to check things off perpetually-expanding to-do lists… classes, readings, papers, clubs, exercise, meetings, homework and more homework. The days of the week are full and they disappear in a happy, confused, caffeine-propelled haze that descends into weekends where full recovery is reliably hindered by the pesky, omnipresent to-do list.
In this frenetic race that is college life, it is more difficult than ever to find time for leisure reading. Each syllabus provides a seemingly never-ending narrative of “things I could be doing” that takes precedent over that tempting pink copy of Tina Fey’s Bossypants lurking on your bookshelf.
Yet, in the midst of feeling swamped, I believe that we can still make time for reading: I believe that we have room for one more book in our backpack.
Before becoming overwhelmed and irritated by the idea of adding to our already enormous workload, consider the following:
1. All you need is fifteen minutes.
Take fifteen minutes each day – perhaps minutes you would normally spend glancing at Facebook or emails – to read your book. This can be fifteen minutes walking across campus, waiting in line at Starbucks, or in bed at night. It may take a while to finish a book this way, but if you make the effort to open it every day, the story will stay with you, and you will eventually get to the end.
2. Fiction heals.
We all have moments of loneliness, confusion, and anxiety in college. Reading fiction (like napping, coffee, or running) can be profoundly restorative. Opening a novel allows you to dive into another world, escape the difficulty of the moment, and perhaps see things from a new perspective.
3. We always have time for the things that are important to us.
Each day, even when I don’t finish reading Aquinas or start studying for an upcoming PoliSci test, I still make time for lunch with friends, multiple Starbucks trips, and an unfortunate amount of social media perusing. If leisure reading is important to you, then you have time for it. (Side note: this is also a good principle remember when that “one person” hasn’t texted you. We always have time for the things that are important to us.)
The beauty of this extra book is that it is whatever you want it to be.
Haven’t gotten around to reading The Fault in Our Stars yet? Go buy the book.
Feeling intellectually inferior after spending night after night trying to understand Aristotle? Take a break and read your favorite Harry Potter book for the tenth time.
Pick up that random book your mom bought you for Christmas last year. Order that “classic” that everyone except for you seems to have read. Take a chance on the book that jumps out at you when you’re at Hammes buying gelato.
When you are tempted to ditch your book because you feel overwhelmed with “more important things,” remember the wise words of Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale (which you should read) who lectured on campus last year: “I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.”
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Images: 1 provided by author