The pursuit of happiness

I saw an interesting poster in the study lounge at Huntsman today. It said "Sleep. Ask us why."

I barely gave this poster a second glance. It is 10pm on a Monday night and I'm one of the many hundred overtired kids at this school who is still working. I plan to be working for the next several hours, in fact. Tomorrow morning, I'm getting up at 7am to finish my work. Work, shower, class, eat, work, repeat. Oh yeah... sleep. If I have time, I'll consider it.

When I left for college, my dad gave me a list of what my priorities should be:
1. Study
2. Friends
3. Flirt
4. Eat and sleep as needed.

Sleep is a distant fourth. What bothers me the most is that this is not a trend that is solely for America's college students. It is our culture, period. Past the age of ten it is a luxury to get a full eight hours of sleep. Then college, then the real world where, if you're lucky, you'll score one of the prestigious jobs on Wall Street where you sell your soul for 100 hour workweeks and a big fat paycheck. It's not just sleep you sacrifice at this point, it's everything: family, friends, vacation. "Free time" still involves compulsively checking your blackberry for new emails about market movements.

Ironically, it was my many hours of homework that led me to ponder the message on this poster. In particular, an article titled "Travel and Free Time" that I'm reading for German class. It describes how Americans make more money but travel less because our culture is one that values working above everything else. It goes on to ask the question - is the "slow" life a better life? Do we work too much, eat too quickly, and not spend enough time just doing nothing? And if we do live in this "fast" life, is that better? "Work will set you free" seems to be the principle our society abides by. It's not a new idea, but it's not a good one either.

Someone wise suggested that I should decide where I want to work by looking at two things: where am I going to be more successful and where I am happiest. These two things happen in two different places. I am pretty sure I'll be more successful if I stay in the US, meaning I'll make more money. But I'll be happier somewhere else. I guess it's a pretty easy decision to make.

Anyway, the point of this is: I have to get back to work. While I may not live the fast life later, I certainly live in it now... and I just spent 45 minutes writing something that yields me no return (in normal English: I don't get a good grade or job offer based on my blog, unfortunately.)


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