Lifelong Deadlines

"There isn't enough time in the day!"

When I was young, I heard this phrase uttered quite often by the adults in my life. As I grow older, I'm starting to agree with it more than ever before. Not only is there not enough time in a day, but there aren't enough months in a year or years in a lifetime. Yes, it sounds cliche, but it's true.

Being in a transitional phase in my life at the age of 24, there are so many paths I can take and so many things I want to do at a given time. I'm constantly writing lists and making up hypothetical schedules for events I want to attend in the future. Unfortunately, there are only so many available days to do things (big or small) when I work 37.5 hours a week with an hour commute each way, every day. In the fall, I'll be moving in another direction when I start graduate school full-time. Despite my excitement for this adventure, it adds more to my ever-growing to-do list for this summer.

As a journalist, I understand deadlines. My career revolves around time frames. Time is inescapable, but people constantly fear time. Schedules and time frames seem to control our lives. We constantly feel like we have to take care of the smallest tasks immediately, and we allow these insignificant chores to monopolize our schedules and (eventually) our lives. 

There is a lot of pressure put on young twenty-somethings to live a fun life and do things "while you are still young." Everyone seems to warn me about accomplishing things before I "settle down." When I look into my future, there are so many trips I'd like to take and so many events I'd like to attend, but working low paying jobs that offer little vacation time and trying to advance in my career in other ways tends to get in the way of all the things I'd like to do. Like me, friends of mine seem to be stuck in this rut of working, sometimes multiple jobs, and then just wanting to relax after dealing with the stress of a work day. Usually, I'm very supportive of "chillaxing" a bit during one's free time. My guilty pleasure is indulging in a large amount of television shows each week. Unfortunately, being stuck in this rut has caused all of us to be trapped in a cycle of boring routine.

I can't even begin to count the amount of times I talked to a fellow twenty-something friend of mine, and we discussed making plans to go on a road trip or a concert or sporting event.  The initial excitement is always there. At that moment, there is hope for a change in our stagnant and uneventful lives. There's happiness! And then reality sets in. We look at our schedules and see that we are limited on days because our work schedules don't coincide or we have a family wedding to attend or we let the mundane chores of adulthood reek havoc on our weekly schedules. We tell each other that we'll "figure it out" and before we know it, the idea fades into the darkness. We are stuck in the routine.

We watch as our days pass us without doing anything exciting. Before we know it, a year has passed. We don't feel like anything in our lives has changed, or we don't have any experiences to share with others. We run on constant, never-ending deadlines that prevent us from doing things we'd like to do with our lives.

I fully support being responsible. Spontaneity and elaborate plans aren't always in the cards for hardworking adults. I'm realizing, though, that individuals have to force things to fit into the preset amount of time we are given. We can't control how much time we have. A day is 24 hours for each person. There are some people who make the most out of the time they have and live fascinating lives. Others allow their lives to stay stagnant without even realizing they are stuck in a cycle. Although money can influence a lot of behaviors, there are plenty of experiences we can have without spending a lot. It's important to shake things up a bit and experience new and fun adventures, regardless of age. Not having enough time should not be an excuse; we need to find a way to get things done.