Enjoy Youth While You Can

By Jacob F.M. Oslick

Last summer I did the typical college thing and got a summer job. Nothing remarkable about that really; college students work for extra cash all the time. Still, the experience got me thinking about the future. Specifically, after schlocking around as a graveyard shift baker at a bagel place for a few months, I realized a few things. First, I get really demented dreams when I sleep during the day. Second and more importantly, college represents the last period in your life with unabridged freedom. So I thought I'd put on paper this advisory to incoming freshmen: treasure your time here. Life will never get easier, your responsibilities will never be lower, and you will never again have so much time for play and recreation.

Now this might seem a little weird when you're up at 3 a.m. cramming for that Orgo test, so let's take an honest look into your life in ten years. Hopefully, a decade from now most of you will be doing something more productive with your lives than baking bagels. Nevertheless, you will have to work long, hard days. Whether it's standing in front of a burning oven in a room that's 130 degrees, or working 14 hour days as a corporate attorney, your time for R & R will practically evaporate.

Let's establish a few contrasts between our student life now, and our hypothetical lives to come. Currently, college students can wake up at 10 am, change our clothes in two minutes, and run to a class five minutes away. However, once you step foot in the dreaded "real world," expect a more realistic wake-up time of 6:30 or so, followed by 45 minutes of getting ready. Dressed in suit and tie (or a tastefully tailored dress for some ladies), we must then commute at least a half-hour to work. Whereas now, in college, we might have four hours of class on a bad day, soon we will routinely pull down 8-10 hours - not including the aforementioned commute to and from work. True, once we leave the office we won't have tests to study for anymore, but we'll still need to research reports, prepare presentations, and schedule meetings with clients. Accordingly, even after school, expect to do a lot of "homework." In addition, unless you're a professor at certain state universities, I wouldn't count on four-plus months of vacation every year. Thus, expect about an 80 percent reduction in vacation time following graduation.

Of course, free time is not the only thing sacrificed when you enter the workforce. In Ann Arbor, most of your cares are already taken care of. Beware ye dormed freshmen, for soon a tidal wave of bills will arrive, all bearing the dreaded red stamp of "Payment Due." Currently, you must make tuition and long distance charges, but soon electricity, heating, local phone, repairs, mortgage and a slew of others will come uninvited and unwanted.

Perhaps most importantly, this is the last period in your life where you can do incredibly stupid things and get away with them. Once you answer to an employer, or (heaven forbid) a wife and children, you can't exactly stay out all night drinking or wreaking general havoc. And eventually, our bodies will rebel, decaying to the point where they can no longer tolerate eight straight hours of basketball or four continuous boxes of pizza.

Now, don't get me wrong; the point of this column is not to depress you, but to remind you to have fun. Keep up with your school work, but as a friend of mine once advised me, "don't let classes interfere with your education." Remember to cherish these times, and to not get so bogged down in work or personal troubles that you forget how truly fortunate you are to be here.

At the same time, don't go to the opposite extreme, totally disregarding your limited responsibilities. Remember: although you can have fun now, try to balance your hedonism with respect for your studies. A life of excess partying from dusk to dawn each day leads only to long-term despair, not happiness or enjoyment. Indeed, college life is much like consumption of excellent wine. A glass at dinner promotes health, while enhancing the taste of steak, chicken or fish. A few glasses in a single sitting once a week provides a pleasant and merry respite from the world. But six or seven glasses each evening can lead to cirrhosis, alcohol poisoning, and a generally banal personality.

As parting words, I refer you to the teaching recorded in the Book of Ecclesiastes (which I further advise all of you to read at your leisure):

O youth, enjoy yourself while you are young! Let your heart lead you to enjoyment in the days of your youth. Follow the desires of your heart and the glances of your eyes - but know well that G-d will call you to account for all such things- and banish care from your mind, and pluck sorrow from your flesh! For youth and black hair are fleeting. So appreciate your vigor in the days of your youth, before those days of sorrow come and those years arrive of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before sun and light and moon and stars grow dark, and the clouds come back again after the rain. (Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:2)

And if, after experiencing for yourself the glories of four years at college, you are still unable to make the leap towards self-reliance... hey, there's always graduate school. MR

This article was published in the New Student Issue of The Michigan Review (Volume 18, Number 1).
For questions or comments, see the Contact Information page.