STOP

About once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon, I have Social Service class. When I have the class I cannot leave for open campus and have to sit around school for about three hours on frees until the end of the day to go to Social Service. For any other class this would piss me off. But I like Social Service.

Some girls in my class like Social Service because it is the only class in the whole school taught by a young, single, fairly attractive male teacher. As much as I like Mr. Pomp (not his real name but close), I just never see teachers as anything but my teacher. If I see a teacher out of school it is the weirdest experience. I expect them to start lecturing me on Kruschev or hand me a pop quiz on polyatomics. Teachers are teachers, forever and ever amen. [There is one exception and that is Ms. G, who I knew before she was my teacher and is actually younger than my older sister. She's always been more like a friend that is very helpful and whom I respect very much]

I like Social Service because it is a discussion class, more of a seminar than a class. We talk about Social Justice, a very important topic that everyone should be intensely interested in. We talk about the service we have done over the year and how it affected our perspective on society. It's a great class.

This past Wednesday, we had a great discussion that was slightly off topic. We started to talk about Time.

Why are we all so desperate to fill our Time? Every second is scheduled. We're always busy busy busy. There's always some commitment to keep. we're always rushing to one place to another. Why can't we slow down?

I think it's easy to get caught up in our lives a little too much. Then, when someone asks us to slow down we freak out. "I CAN'T slow down! I have to get to yoga. Then my piano less. Then I'm tutoring my neighbor in Spanish. Then, I have to write a paper on the Cold War and write up a lab for Biology. Plus, I have to bake cupcakes for my friend's birthday tomorrow."

Phew! That's a whole lot of shit right there. And that's a normal day.

All of those activities, taken on their own, are great. Yoga is a great form of exercise. I love playing the piano. Tutoring is a nice thing to do for a friend. I have to do my homework to keep up my grades. And who wouldn't bake cupcakes for a good friend?

But why do all of these things need to be thrown all together, all on one night. And why do I feel like if I miss one thing I have failed, let everyone down? Yes, I can fit it all in if I schedule everything well but why am I trying to squeaze so much in at once?

Why can't we all just slow down? Our whole society, I mean.

Everyone. Just drop one or two commitments for a week. Use that extra hour to do something for yourself, see how you feel. Actually get more than 6 hours of sleep at night. Slow down. Walk calmly through life instead of run at full speed 24/7.

It's exhausting but society tells us that we need to fill up our time. People who don't schedule five hundred different events to fill their days are seen as lazy. Really, what's wrong with that guy sitting on the couch eating Cheese Curlz and watching football? Ok, maybe too many Cheese Curlz and no work whatsoever is bad but just an hour or two every day?

Why not just take a walk with your dog and instead of impatiently waiting for Fido to do his business and get it over with, smile at your neighbor and ask him how he's been? Because when we're always rushing around to our ten million commitments we become so wrapped up in ourselves we lose touch with people around us. Whatever happened to actually talking to people. Not texting of writing on facebook walls, but talking?

Just now my sister called on the phone and we talked for ten minutes about absolutely nothing. But we weren't rushing off anywhere and we had an actual conversation. We didn't discuss our plans or everything that was stressing us out. We just talked.

I don't know. I just want to slow down. STOP.