Stay Awake During Class
I’ve never thought about my daily life philosophy. I’ve never really had to. To be honest, I didn’t think I had one. I guess I figured one had to be much older to even consider the idea of ‘knowing’ a philosophy on life; especially my own. At seventeen, there isn’t much I’ve been through and there hasn’t been enough time for elaborate stories on life lessons to be conjured up.
Now that I’m sitting here, I can think up plenty of my daily beliefs. I suppose I could go with ‘always do your homework,’ but God knows that wouldn’t be very truthful.
I believe in staying awake during class. Now saying that does not mean I haven’t been one to get caught with a small puddle on my chem. homework. Though, I do have good excuses for those few times so no worries.
In ninth grade biology the kid in front of me was quite the sleeper. I’m pretty sure he slept just about everyday. He was also quite the entertainer and snored and twitched all the time. Sadly, he was always missing the lectures which would lead him to fail the tests. Plus, he was missing out on some interesting stuff. He did seem impressed that he could avoid biology so much, until the next year when I saw him in the biology classroom again.
I guess I could say he lost focus in life and let some of it pass him by, in a school kind of way. That’s what ‘staying awake during class’ really means. Staying focused so life doesn’t pass by. That’s such a terrible idea to fathom, life actually passing by, and then snapping back to reality and realizing you’re eighty-one and wondering where the heck the last forty years went.
That’s why I believe in staying focused in my life. Or more easily put for my fellow generation: staying awake during class. My freshman year of high school I remember all the seniors used to say “It may seem like the year is going slow now, but before you know it, you’ll be a senior.” Considering I was struggling in all my classes and it was only the fourth day of school, I didn’t believe them, at all. Though strangely, I found myself telling the freshman this year, as I stood before them as a senior, the exact same thing. That’s when I realized life does pass by without even a tap on my shoulder to let me know it’s about to leave me behind. And that’s when I decided I was going to pay closer attention to the years ahead.
So the next time I get caught with that puddle on my desk or I get laughed at for twitching so badly I fall out of my seat, I’ll remember the following time I ‘fall asleep,’ it could be the during the next forty years of my life.