By Gisselle Hernandez, Features Editor
It’s happening again. I’m freaking out about the concept of time.
If you ask any of the people I work with, they will tell you I do this at least once a week, and yes, I am aware it gets annoying. But how can you not freak out? We’ve sped through nine months of 2016 as easily as flipping the pages of a wall calendar. You might not know me, but I’m the type of person who would have probably drove Nietzsche, who came up with the school of existentialism, crazy. . Just sitting here trying to write this column as time ticks by on my laptop clock has sweat beading on my brow.
Ironically, I’m also one of those people – I’m sure like many others – who mutters the phrase ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ at least 74 times a day. Precisely because of this paradox I’m here to tell you, it’s a trap, man. There IS no tomorrow. And I don’t mean it in the ‘we’re doomed and the concept of time is relative’ philosophical nonsense. I mean it as in the ‘you’re a college kid who’s probably never going to have as much free time in the future as you do now’ sense. I’ve been here for two years and I’ve never been to the lake (I know, I know. I’m getting to it, all right?)
I’ve also never been to The Arboretum, never been to a Rocky Horror Picture Show, never had a pumpkin spice latte. All these things might seem mundane and #basic to most of you, but keep in mind I’ve been saying I would do all these things since I first came here in 2014. It is now nearing the end of 2016. I’m sure all of you have your own list, too.
What I’m trying to say is, I graduate this spring, and from then on I’ll probably find myself back in my tiny tropical country where PSLs are as valued as winter jackets in December. So this is a column telling myself to do the things I said I would and so should you.
When you leave Murray State and get a job in some big city or continue on to grad school across the country, you won’t have the luxury of doing that one crazy 15-hour road trip with your buddies or watch the sun set over Kentucky Lake. Get your butt off of your potato-chip-encrusted couch and do what’s on that list, no matter how small it might seem.
When you have your 9 to 5 job, you’ll wish you had studied abroad in college or learned a new language. Time is ticking, people. Believe me, I know. The next thing you know, your diploma is placed in your hand and you’re on the job hunt, dreams of camping at LBL long since vanished into thin air.
Like the phenomenal author Paulo Coelho said, “one day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.” There’s a difference between procrastinating and robbing yourself the experiences of a lifetime.
So get out there and cross off that thing on your list that’s been haunting you since you mentally jotted it down. As for me, I think it’s time I finally see that sun rise at LBL.