A few weeks ago, I attended a weekly meeting of a club, where two girls had just joined, so they were asked to introduce themselves to everyone. They were to mention their faculty, what year they were in, and their favourite thing. The first girl told us her faculty and year, and then said that her favourite thing is sleep. The second girl introduced herself as well, and stated that her favourite thing is food. I nearly burst out laughing, but they were completely serious. Yes, they were put on the spot in a room full of strangers, but their answers didn’t really matter, as they could have said just about anything, and were probably going to be forgotten less than five minutes later. Yet, their answers stuck with me, because I both related to and hated those responses.
Their responses are not atypical of our generation. With the increasing celebrity influence and the ever-growing addiction to memes, millennials can seem to aspire to, well, laziness. This laziness takes many forms, such as obsessing over unhealthy foods (pizza, chicken nuggets, and nachos – I am looking at you), and making poor decisions in our academic and personal lives (like cancelling plans with a friend to nap, writing a paper the night before it is due, or skipping the gym to go get blackout). The worst part is that laughing at or sharing these memes implies that we are proud of these bad habits.
A few years back, celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence captured our hearts by showing up at the Oscars red carpet and immediately looking for food. She is just like us! But we adopted that down-to-earth persona in the worst way: we have forgotten her talent and hard work that got her to the Oscars, and, instead, imitated her by fantasizing about pizza.
Yes, memes are funny and relatable, pizza is delicious, and Jennifer Lawrence is pretty awesome, but laziness should never be something to aspire to. There’s more to us than basic human needs for survival and common experiences. Food and sleep are not parts of your personality – in fact, those are things you physically need to survive. If you take anything from this article, please remember that if it belongs in the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, maybe do not include it as one of your favourite things. Don’t aspire to be lazy – instead, enjoy knowing that we all regret hitting snooze too many times on our alarms, and then find what makes you you. Look for what makes you happy, and hopefully, you will discover there is more to enjoy than necessities for human survival.