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Volume CXXXII, Number 10 |
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Give thanks for time
GENEVIEVE CREEDON
COLUMNIST
"Well, Gen," my friend said, walking into my room the other day, "I realized last night what you mean about learning for learning's sake, and why it's so important." I stood in the doorway of my room as he began to explain this epiphany to me. He had been studying for a test at L.L.Bean, on one of the couches of the Home section. Two hours into his studying, he stood up to take a break, somewhat fed up with the studying. "And then I thought: there are a lot of worse places I could be right now…but I'm not anywhere else. I was right there, studying, because someone is paying for me to learn this stuff. Someone is paying for me to be here and learn so that I can use that learning to do what I want with my life….We're all so freaking lucky, and we don't even realize it."
And he's right. We are ridiculously lucky. We have all of these opportunities. We have an education. We have the comfort of our rooms after a long day. We have food to eat. We have time.
Ambrose Bierce gave the definition of a day: "Twenty-four hours, mostly misspent." I have spent the past few weeks talking with a number of different people about how little time there is on this campus. People always have so much to do, and perhaps all the time is not misspent, but at the end of the day, I wonder how many people are fully satisfied with the ways in which they have spent their time.
I have spent a lot of my time at Bowdoin being very frustrated on a number of different levels. When I returned to campus this semester, one of my professors commented on my having to figure out what I want to do with the next three years, and I think I know what that is now. I want to write. I used to write as a way of dealing with misspending my time. I want to write in order not to misspend my time. And I am realizing that that decision is not just about sitting down daily and writing. It is about engaging writing and language. It is about conversations and relationships and time.
In many ways, my struggle with Bowdoin is little more than a deep struggle with time that has been taking hold in me for years. We are not taught to value time. We are taught to fill it. To use it.
When my friend walked in to tell me about his epiphany about learning for learning's sake, I wanted to revise the statement. It is not "learning for learning's sake." It is learning for time's sake and for ourselves. It's learning, writing, talking, hanging out, ice skating not to fill our time, but to value it (and ourselves).
As we approach this holiday season and everything that comes with it-the hurry, the gift buying, the food, the time perpetually running out-I'd like to make a single request. Remember how valuable time is, not just your own time, but others'. The greatest givers, to me, are the ones who offer their time. Take the time this week to thank one of those givers. They make all the difference.
Thank you.
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