2008 Woodie Awards
Time well wasted
Chris Boucher
Issue date: 1/15/03 Section: Commentary
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I don't try to make a habit out of passing out in Spanish class. As I would rather be just about anywhere else three mornings a week, exchanges like this are frequent:
Spanish Professor: Chris, haces tu tarea?
Me: zzzz...
SP: DESPERTA!
Me: *wakes up* AIEEEE! NO ES BUENO!
I would rather avoid scenes like this. But spending the night and most of the early morning at a work call for a new show going up on campus, I am not in the mood to give this class my full attention. And looking around the classroom, I can see I am not the only one. Heads bob up and down like those drinking bird lawn ornaments. Even the ones who genuinely want to know the correct conjugations of gustar spent their evenings at meetings of this club or that organization. Some of them probably spent half the night hanging fliers on every available piece of wall on this campus. If Intermediate Spanish II must suffer for the sake of their group, so be it.
By this point in the school year, I am usually involved in as many extracurricular activities as I have classes. It is not that I am intentionally avoiding class work (most of the time), but given the choice between busting my rear over a six-page paper or putting together a shoot for a student film, I would much rather spend my valuable caffeine dollars on the latter. Here at college, you have four years to play around with whatever sparks your interest.
Gone are the hyper-regimented schedules of high school (the only place where 14-hour days with no overtime is still legal). Whatever political, creative or social activity you would like to pursue, chances are someone has already started a group for it. The tables covering Copley Lawn during SAC Fair back me up on this.
From that point, it is just a matter of finding what you want to do when you have the time to do it. When people complain about being over committed, there's a distinct difference between the "good" kind (actually enjoying what they are doing, sense of accomplishment), and the "bad" kind (looking like they haven't left the bowels of the library in five days). The bad kind can be traced directly back to activities like eight-page papers and midterms. Working on something you are actually personally invested in creates the "good" kind of over committed.
Spanish Professor: Chris, haces tu tarea?
Me: zzzz...
SP: DESPERTA!
Me: *wakes up* AIEEEE! NO ES BUENO!
I would rather avoid scenes like this. But spending the night and most of the early morning at a work call for a new show going up on campus, I am not in the mood to give this class my full attention. And looking around the classroom, I can see I am not the only one. Heads bob up and down like those drinking bird lawn ornaments. Even the ones who genuinely want to know the correct conjugations of gustar spent their evenings at meetings of this club or that organization. Some of them probably spent half the night hanging fliers on every available piece of wall on this campus. If Intermediate Spanish II must suffer for the sake of their group, so be it.
By this point in the school year, I am usually involved in as many extracurricular activities as I have classes. It is not that I am intentionally avoiding class work (most of the time), but given the choice between busting my rear over a six-page paper or putting together a shoot for a student film, I would much rather spend my valuable caffeine dollars on the latter. Here at college, you have four years to play around with whatever sparks your interest.
Gone are the hyper-regimented schedules of high school (the only place where 14-hour days with no overtime is still legal). Whatever political, creative or social activity you would like to pursue, chances are someone has already started a group for it. The tables covering Copley Lawn during SAC Fair back me up on this.
From that point, it is just a matter of finding what you want to do when you have the time to do it. When people complain about being over committed, there's a distinct difference between the "good" kind (actually enjoying what they are doing, sense of accomplishment), and the "bad" kind (looking like they haven't left the bowels of the library in five days). The bad kind can be traced directly back to activities like eight-page papers and midterms. Working on something you are actually personally invested in creates the "good" kind of over committed.