I Own Two Planners!

Going home from college is strange.  The place felt more crowded then; decorations were everywhere two weeks after Christmas was over because the apartment would otherwise feel sullen, mail was perfectly sorted into piles on top of every piece of furniture, crumbs were graciously left for mice in the kitchen, the remote was always left in a different place to keep my dad mentally fit, and the vacuum served as a fine dust collector.  Now the carpet is vacuumed, the mail is organized in only three piles, the refrigerator and cupboards are almost empty so naturally there's no food elsewhere, and my bed is cleared off and ready to sleep on.  When has my dad had all this time to clean?  Then I realize it’s been three weeks since I’ve been here…I guess time flies when you’re at college.

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Martin Cockroft once said “I wouldn’t want one of your schedules on a good day!”  He’s right.  You shouldn’t want one of our schedules, ever.  I personally work myself to exhaustion on a regular basis.  I’ve replaced childhood memories for psychology terms and don’t have time to watch Glee, let alone sleep.  I’m not the type of person to sacrifice my rest and enjoyment for education, but then I remember what I’m working for…an English degree, a teaching certificate, and a teaching English as a second language certificate. 

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I got the $250 out of my account that contains the money I earn from my two jobs.  I put it in an envelope and handed it to the lady in charge of the spring mission trip to Argentina.  There, I’d get a two week taste of what I’d be doing for the rest of my life--loving on orphans, some from the streets and the prostitution business.  What could make a person’s life more worth living than to show someone else that theirs is worth living too?  Seeing their faces would be a break from the race and a glimpse of the prize I’m running for.

I was the only one who turned in the first down payment.  No one else would go. 

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Time goes too fast for you to get all the things you stuff into your life done, but not fast enough towards the time when you want it to stop so you can savor one of the moments that makes life worth living.  You’re doing all these things you don’t like, or do because you’re asked to, or because you have to, or because it makes you happy in a numbing sort of way that gets you by—until you look at your schedule to see when the last time you stopped to make sure time was going normally.  You’ve packed so much into your schedule that it makes the past few weeks since you’ve enjoyed yourself, seem like an eternity.  Then you look at what you’ve already planned for the next few weeks and it seems even longer.  The time between the last weekend you forgot about your responsibilities to remember what you live for, and the next, is too long to be healthy. 

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It’s finally Superbowl weekend.  Do you know what that means?  I’m going to dress in a Steelers shirt and play scrabble with my boyfriend’s grandma while he and the rest of his family scream at a TV!  But that’s not until six o’clock.  It’s early afternoon now, and Father Time has slowed from a 5-k-sprint to a healthy pace.  About once a month is when time goes at a normal speed, and I feel like I can actually live my life instead of trying to catch up with it.