Letter to the Editor
Managing our time
“Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.”
These are the words of perhaps one of our generation’s favorite heroes, Bilbo Baggins. While staving off old age and trying to hold on to his treasured possession, the Ring, he had begun to feel strained. Obviously, he himself puts it best, but Bilbo was struggling with something, and I think we students can identify nicely with our furry-footed little friend.
While we may not be struggling over a ring (or we may well be), the feeling of being overstretched has become far too pervasive in our society today. I don’t mean the healthy sort of stretching, like dough that needs to be kneaded, but rather that tired, wasted feeling. That drag of always having ‘one more thing’ to do. We are so busy living life we have not realized just how far behind life has been left.
And I think our campus may have something to do with it. Our school is so bursting with activities and events that it looks like an autumn tree in full color, and we cannot help but be awestruck with the amount of choices we have. How many of us have said, “If only I could be a professional student, I would stay here forever!” But I think we have done ourselves a disservice. In trying to digest the entire bowl of Fruity Pebbles, we’ve gotten sick because we, simply put, have too much.
While choice is fabulous, it necessitates responsibility – responsibility for not making the other choice. And it is there that the student must learn. If we cannot choose what must be left behind, we will get sick trying to do it all. We will become like Bilbo, like “butter that has been scraped over too much bread.” If we want to read, then perhaps we cannot do intramurals. If we wish to invest in writing, then perhaps we must write rather than hang out. If we wish to survive these few years producing anything worth keeping, we will have to choose to limit ourselves to three or four leaves of the tree. In limiting ourselves, I think we will find greater focus and fulfillment in our academic and future lives.
Keith Anderson Resident Assistant