Upon opening my laptop yesterday morning in the campus food/study court, reality hit me like a brick lobbed by Macaulay Culkin from the rooftop of a decrepit New York apartment building in Home Alone 2: I've only got a month and a half left here in Rotterdam.
I feel like I've now gained a sense of what parents mean when they say, "It seems like only yesterday you were in diapers." Time seems to have both sped up to breakneck speeds and slowed to a slothly crawl. The linear, deadline salient part of my mind says, "You've been here for five months. That's a pretty long time." and another says, "Five months is only a chip of the tip of the iceberg, bruh."
Since doing schoolwork was out of the question, I started thinking about how traveling affects my perception of passing time, and I subsequently concluded that traveling has a paradoxical ability to slow time down, whereas staying put counterintuitively speeds time up. As we grow older, have kids, and surrender the fast times of virile youth, the more sedentary we become, thus making our perception of time speed up to the point that we look at the passing of each year with incredulous dismay.
On the other hand, traveling allows us to experience places and people only briefly in terms of clock hands and calendar days, but at such depth that we tend to perceive it to be longer.
In that sense, time is indeed money. It serves as a currency in its truest form; as a medium of exchange which inherently acts as a store of economic or psychological value. Just like money, you can invest time in the right things just as easily as you can waste time on the wrong things. You can have a lot of it or none at all.
So really, when you think about it, and assuming you agree with the notion that time and money are interchangeable terms, sacrificing your time for money doesn't make much sense. It's like trading money for money.
If that's the case, then homeless people technically would be the richest people in the world, whereas the perpetually busy, 80 hour workweek Fortune 500 company executives would be the most destitute of us all.
Though I'm still relatively new to this whole "real world" idea, I know enough to know this not how the world works
"How come, Drew?"
Ah, I was hoping you'd ask, because just like money, it doesn't matter the amount of time we have that determines its value, but instead, the amount of time we use. Thus, it's better to use a small amount of time and wring out every last drop of its value than it is to hoard it.
In case nobody has told you, "studying abroad" consists of maybe one week, cumulatively, of actual study. The rest of that time is yours to expend as you see fit, not accounting for necessities, such as sleep.
I only write about this epiphany of mine because, like anyone else, I'm guilty of wasting my free time. I stay on Facebook or Stumbleupon when I should probably be doing homework or studying. But, adding to the litany of lessons I've learned abroad, time you enjoy wasting is not the same as wasted time.
Plus, because we all know how easy it is to waste time, how do we ensure that, if we choose to waste time, we waste it effectively? I know it sounds crazy, but over the course of my five months here in Holland, I've been increasingly making a conscious effort to waste time.
True to economics, I incur an opportunity cost when I do this. I trade a two hour documentary for two hours that could've been spent on my assignments. But what do I gain? Perhaps new knowledge about something I never would've known about had my nose been buried in books all day; perhaps a new insight or understanding or perspective, the signal of which can only be detected when I make the conscious effort to devote my time to clearing out the white noise and clutter.
During these times, I've often find myself gravitating towards poetry, literature, music, art, and really anything that piques my interest and distracts me from the hustle and bustle of the world.
I've reread some of the books I used to complain about having to read in high school, poring over their precious contents to identify lessons I missed during English class, where I was too focused on my ability to formulaically regurgitate the information on a quiz, rather than think critically about the point the author was trying to convey and how it may relate to me as a person.
In the process, I've unearthed bite-sized bits of sage wisdom and timeless lessons that I'll cherish and remember just as vividly as the insane trips and the raging parties and the nights spent playing "President" in Jordan's room. I know it sounds oh so stereotypical of every person who's ever studied abroad in history, but I've really found myself here in Holland. For lack of a better word, I've found my motto(s), and for the first time, concretely defined what my values are as a person.
The point is, I don't write this blog so that everyone can think I'm The Man. I write it because.........well.........I enjoy it. I enjoy entertaining people and inspiring people. As such, it's not that I've attained some level of esoteric fulfillment reserved for the lucky few. To the contrary, the whole point of this blog's is to serve as a testament to the fact that anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world is able to do cool shit.
Since I just know you've all been salivating in anticipation for these tasty AF morsels of life mottos I'm about to lay down, I'll leave you to them. But because the amount of material I find inspiration in could probably fill libraries, I've limited myself to the select few that I always find myself coming back to, as well as links and the reason why these pieces in particular were chosen.
As a final word, you may not identify with them as closely as I do, and that's okay. Under no circumstances should you allow me or anyone else to dictate what you can or cannot relate to. If you like them, great. If you don't, then you've already got a headstart on answering the "why not" side of the coin, which is often just as important.
Cheers everyone, and thanks for reading.
-Drew
Drewby's Top Ten Inspirational AF Books, Poems, and Quotes (in no particular order)
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley- A fantastic poem about the fleeting nature of power and the frighteningly ephemeral nature of life, as well as the title of the most spellbinding episode of Breaking Bad ever. It never ceases to entrance me.
http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/672/
The Man in the Arena by Teddy Roosevelt - Another sweet ass, bomb ass, dank ass excerpt of a speech titled "Citizenship in a Republic" from arguably the coolest President in American history delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris. Essentially reminds me that 'tis better to try; to spend oneself in a worthy cause and fail than never try at all.
http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson - One of very few useful self-improvement/business books which posits success is the product of mundane habits doggedly conducted over a very long period of time.
Song of the Open Road by Walt Whitman - A great poem for travelers that emphasizes an appreciation for the outdoors and the democratic nature of traveling/meeting others. It's lackadaisical, uplifting, and beautifully written in rhythmic verse.
http://www.bartleby.com/142/82.html
Desiderata by Max Ehrmann - Very empowering poem that doles out some fantastic life advice and consoles the worried mind, all written in layman's terms. A personal favorite.
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~gongsu/desiderata_textonly.html
"Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" by Shakespeare - Inspiring in that it forces you to realize that though you'll cease to exist someday, your legacy, your memory, and your words basically make you immortal.
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/shall-i-compare-thee-summers-day-sonnet-18
"Invictus" by William Earnest Henley - Kicks you in the balls with a visceral message that always reminds us we are more in control of ourselves than we think. Last two lines are definitely among the best denouements in literary history.
http://www.bartleby.com/103/7.html
"Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures"- Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, ie don't allow fear of conflict to preclude your pursuit of whatever you enjoy.
"If" by Rudyard Kipling- Kipling had a pretty god-awful childhood and he still turned out alright I guess. Basically, it says if you can weather the shitstorm of life without forsaking your beliefs, you'll be a better person because of it.
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_if.htm
"Harbors rot ships and men." - Admiral Nelson. Short. Sweet. To the point. Always reminds me that to move is to be alive; that when faced with something in your life, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the second best is to do the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing at all.
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