Reality check please
A friend’s older sister once went on a family trip over the summer and became so enamored with prunes that it’s all she would eat. By the end of their time traveling around Washington State, she was given the name “Prunella.” It’s a nickname she still has now more than 20 years later. It was her summer challenge that season: she could never resist an open bag.
There are greater challenges than consuming prunes, midnight chocolate chip cookies or double-tall caramel macchiatos at Starbucks. If this were an old black and white film from the ‘40s, you would hear next the dark and gravely voice of our anti-hero explain about other more serious and complicated challenges like “broads, booze, and one armed bandits.”
It’s almost summer 2009 and the less serious challenges to overcome might be too much time on Facebook, finding the cash for iPod uploads, or keeping up with the latest on American Idol. More pressing issues are the ratio of work, school and time with friends.
Reality will not wait for decisions to be made or not made. It might hurt most when you make a decision and it’s the wrong one. The Orange County Register reported on two Irvine residents, one at UCLA and the other at UCI, allegedly breaking into cars and stealing iPods, cell phones and cash. There should not be too many Saddleback students making decisions like that but are falling behind just the same.
It’s natural to think about it now with the economy down like it is, but it doesn’t make it any less important. Now is the time to put things in order. Take a minute to add up the time spent on Facebook, American Idol or Perez Hilton: you’ll see most likely hours that go over that of a part-time job or learning how to do something that will eventually make a car payment. You don’t need an abacus to add up the cash tossed on the counter for coffee, alcohol, or cigs.
This country is more than ever a place where anyone can get to anywhere they want to be. The span of time to get back to the good ole days used to be a generation or two. But now don’t be fooled: the speed of the Internet and communication makes the good ole days go back all of a week and gaining fast.
It’s not just about saving time and money, it’s about going someplace. Time isn’t like a Chai Tea Frappuccino at Starbucks: they are not going to make more of it.