Everyone is always going, going, going. There is no longer time to stop and smell the flowers, admire a sunrise, let alone write a paper. In a world full of clocks, schedules, deadlines, and tardy slips, I find myself overstressed and overworked. Every activity that I am in requires a large amount of time dedication. There are many instances where the schedules conflict and neither party are willing to compromise. Because of this lack of time and clash of schedules, I have become stretched too thin and feel that my resulting work in each area is suffering. I have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to declare my independence from time and schedules.
While it can be argued exactly how long the Earth has been around, it can be agreed upon that for as long as it has been here there has been a sense of time. There may not have always been hours, minutes, and seconds; but the sun and moon were vital markers of time in the early ages. Sunrise has been a signal for the cock to crow and sunset brings about the winding down of daily activities and brings much-needed rest. Farmers have had deadlines of when to plant their seeds and when to harvest their crops. I am very aware that I am not the first to be bound by time. However, in my own life, I have found that time has constrained me so harshly that I shall take this suppression no more! Yes time has been around forever, but I choose to break this cycle of abuse! I shall not be constrained to not act on these violations of my rights just because those before me have not chosen to fight this worthwhile battle.
Humans are to have the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that because of time, these rights are being violated. My life is being disrupted by much unneeded stress. It has been proven that stress in your life puts stress on your heart. This can unfortunately lead to an early death. These few statements alone show how brutal time constraints can be. Not only are they ruining my life in the current moment, but they are putting a time limit on my life as well.
My liberty is being violated because I do not have the freedom to use my time as I wish or need to. To explain this further, I will emphasize the obligations that I have in my life, all of which have large time commitments and lack flexibility. It should be made very clear that I am thankful for the obligations that I have. It is not the obligations that are stressing me out, but the lack of time that is taking away my ability to enjoy them.
I am proud to be a student at the University of Sioux Falls. While here, I have been blessed with a love for knowledge, beautiful and enriching friendships, and a stronger relationship with God. I am thankful that I have been interested in each of my courses. I always want to do my coursework and understand the necessity of reading materials that I am assigned. However, the lack of time does not allow me to spend as much effort on these assignments as I would wish. I find myself skimming, or sometimes skipping, reading assignments. This is disheartening because I know that I am not getting the full benefits of my courses.
I have been blessed with numerous friendships with a diversity of people. I receive numerous invitations to hang out and bond, yet because of time, it is impossible to respond with a “yes” to every invitation. This robs me of so many opportunities to get to know people and to learn more about myself. It puts me in a position of picking and choosing which events I should go to.
The area I must say that I am most hurt by the handcuffs of time is my relationship with God. How amazing would it be to be able to spend my entire day in worship? I find it disgusting that because of how busy I am, I seem to schedule God into my life. I know that I will worship him at church on Sundays and in Chapel on Tuesdays. I enjoy the prayer we have at every rehearsal and before every performance. I try to pray every night before bed. However, with all that He has done for me, I feel that I have no right to schedule Him into my life. Time causes me to feel rushed and, consequently, my small human mind can push Him to the back at different times of the day.
I love the sense of family that I have found in the theatre department. We are all extremely supportive of each other. We celebrate the successes that are experienced and embrace each other through our hurts and failures. Yet, theatre takes up a large amount of my time. We are there anywhere from four to thirteen and a half hours at a time. I wish that I could enjoy this time, but my mind wanders to all of the homework, errands, and obligations that I have. I become consumed with stress and do not know how I will manage to get it all done. The rigidity of time cuts into the creative and free atmosphere that theatre strives on.
How can I possibly pursue happiness when I barely have time to put effort into the obligations in my life? For instance, let’s say that I would like to pursue the happiness that comes along with playing cards with friends, but because of a deadline I must instead type a paper. Even if I do care about the paper, my pursuit of happiness is being violated because I do not have the time for both. Another example is of wanting to attend church with friends on a Sunday evening. Because of a time conflict with theatre rehearsal, I am not allowed to go. Because I love church and theatre, it is hurtful to not be able to attend both on a Sunday evening. It is hard to be happy at one when I know that I am missing out on the other.
I do believe that a person should not be able to complain unless they have tried to fix their problems. This said, I have put forth multiple efforts to lessen the pain of the bondage of time. I chose to invest in a planner with which I could better organize my time. To motivate myself to actually use this planner, I bought a Wicked themed planner. Wicked is one of my favorite musicals and I knew that I would look forward to using it so that I could see the show pictures in it. Sure this all sounds good, but certainly there must be a hole in this ingenious investment. Well, I used this planner loyally, but eventually became more stressed because of the planner. I found that there was not even enough space in each day’s slot to write down my homework, rehearsal schedule, work schedule, and multiple other details. If there is not enough space to even write the events of my day, then there cannot possibly be enough time for these events.
Another way that I have tried to solve this problem with time is by not being so involved and learning how to say no to favors and opportunities. I have prioritized my life. In high school, I was a part of anything and everything. I also chose to take on leadership roles in every activity I was a part of. I was also always overeager to help my friends, family, or any other random person who asked for my help. I have always believed that it is important to help those around you, and I enjoy knowing that I have made someone’s day a little easier or happier. However, you cannot give what you do not have. I cannot commit to helping a friend write a paper when I have yet to write my own. I cannot do four of my friends’ make-up and nails the day of prom because it will result in me rushing on my own. You have to set limits on how much of yourself you are willing to give.
As evidenced in the prior paragraphs, I have found myself to be enslaved by time. I find it necessary to declare my independence from time. I shall no more organize my life around the hours of the day or the days of the week. I will cease to put an emphasis on time and instead concentrate on enjoying the multiple activities and relationships I have in my life. I will not turn down hanging out with friends so that I can work on homework. We were created to make the most of our lives, not to spend our lives stressing over a lack of time. I therefore officially declare myself free from time!
