Power Hour

As I sit here writing this article, my conscience is telling me that I have too many uncompleted deliverables due tomorrow to spend an hour to write my column for this issue. However, somewhere in those sleepless nights and hours of frustration, I realize that I have a commitment to have an article to fill my allocated space in this newspaper.

Sure, I may lose another hour of sleep or obtain a lower mark on my labs, but the reward in the end is greater than any amount of sleep or marks I get. I get to see my article in print for hundreds of people across campus to read. This hour of writing is precious to my sanity in many ways. For instance, it provides a break from real-time operating systems, transistors and probability theory. I get a breath of where my personal life is at and who I really am. My life isn’t school work and I never want it to be.

Setting aside one hour a week to do something that you really love is more enjoyable and rewarding than working on school assignments, surfing the web or watching TV. It helps preserve the essence of who you are. By falling into the trap of pulling all-nighters and goofing off when time is scarce, you are losing your defining characteristic. You become someone who you really are not and the cycle continues until you forget who you are.

Everyone has enough free time to do something useful and enjoyable. How do you have the time to put in ten hours of work for a lab, but not a single minute for doing what you really want? Does finding that missing semicolon in your ‘C’ code actually enrich your life? What have you gained by finding that missing negative sign in your calculus assignment? Are those extra marks really worth losing your individuality?

Instead of wasting your time during studying, why not go to PAC and play your favourite sport that you haven’t played in months or pick up that book that has been lying on page 132 for the past two weeks. You are never going to relive that one hour of your life. Would you like to be filled with calculus assignments or something pleasurable? The choice is yours to make, not mine. Do what you will, but do what you want.