Has it really been four years?
I remember February 2008 vividly. I had finished my first semester as a teacher and was loving life as a Residence Don, I had gotten my first just in Suzhou and my ticket to expat life in China, and I remember noting that the last Friday of the month was going to be a special day, February 29.
In the buildup I kept thinking about how this extra day should be put to good use. I should do something interesting, something fun, something beneficial. I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I think that I wasted it. Maybe I stayed home and watched movies, maybe I went out on this Friday night, either way it came and went.
Next time, I told myself, I would make the most of this gift. Here I am just finished cooking dinner sitting down to write about it.
Today was by all accounts a regular day. I woke up, ate breakfast, went to work, taught some good lessons and some adequate lessons, stayed after school for a meeting, and now I’m back home.
Why do we waste so much of our time?
I understand and subscribe to the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of hard work to become and expert at something. That translates into an hour a day, every day for just over 27 years. I’m 29 years old and I can’t think of a thing that I’ve been doing every day since I was 2, other than one very important thing, nothing.
Four years ago I thought that I had life by the horns, that I was taking charge, making a difference, now I just feel so average. Was I naive and arrogant, or am I now just bitter and jaded? I don’t have the slightest idea one way or another, but maybe I liked being in the dark better.
Or maybe now, in writing this, I will get some motivation to change things, to live like I used to so that four years from now I won’t just sit around and waste more time — Monday February 29, 2016 you better watch out!
Hopefully I’ll have life figured out by then.
Until next time,
G
