Running a marathon is one of the more absurd things a person can do. The runner pushes herself until the cocktail of lactic acid, adrenaline and cortisol pumping through the body flirts with the line between agony and pain. The joints are abused, the muscles take weeks to heal properly, and the body as a whole is tricked into a run-for-your-life level of stress. Why would people subject themselves to such misery? The chief reason is that those three hours provide valuable rewards: the post-race euphoria makes one feel more alive than ever before, and a stake is put in the ground, saying, “This person sets ambitious goals and is achieves them.” Millions run marathons every year – for them, these rewards are worth their weight in sweat.
Students of the world run a marathon of their own, where the currency is hours of solitude, sacrifice, and sleep. Our goals are not unlike those of the aforementioned runners: in exchange for enduring a period of hardship, one has a diploma, an iron ring, and a supposedly bright future to look forward to. However, our marathon is significantly longer, and has precious few rest stops or intermissions.
At an early age we begin to feel the pressures of becoming successful in this world. Overbearing and well-meaning parents regiment the lives of their children to ensure a maximum chance of getting into the best university possible, maintaining an elaborate itinerary to squeeze the most out of every day. As early as grade 11, high schools make students initiate a commitment to math and the sciences. Gone are the days of relaxed summer breaks and unstructured stretches of time to just think, read a book, or relax. This in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our lives are short, and we should try and make the most out of every day.
This being said, we need to recognize that starting in our early teenage years, our lives are becoming more and more like one big marathon. Why? It’s just so tempting to put off living until the next big event on the horizon. At the start of each semester, midterms loom and of course become the main focus of your life, “After midterms are over I can look up,” we tell ourselves. Within two more weeks, the same process repeats. Then on co-op, we find ourselves working late for a week to push through one more proposal, only to discover the same situation emerging the next week. This is a continuous loop, and the only breaks exist in the brief transition between co-op and school.
It is a dangerous thing to always live in the future. There will always be something to look forward to: the next assignment, the next semester, graduation, getting a good job, getting a better job, establishing a happy family, raising these kids to have a good job, retiring, et cetera. All of these things are admirable things, but it is all too easy to end up at the last step without ever embracing the present. We shouldn’t postpone living for some later goal, because a final step is never reached, and we perpetuate a never-ending chase. Middle-aged professionals sometimes lament the unnoticed passage of their lives – they end up somewhere great at the cost of missing much of their most precious years.
Of course, finishing our degree is currently the most important focus of our lives, but this needn’t to be mutually exclusive with the other, finer aspects of life. It would obviously be unwise to abandon studying; instead, study most of the week and take a couple of evenings off to pursue things that are important to you. Write a blog post, play an instrument, read a book, go on a date, or party like a rock star. Try to make a good memory or two by the end of each week. I can guarantee that this will have a more positive impact on your life than a few extra hours of studying each week.
A short marathon is reasonable – the rewards do indeed outweigh the hardship – while one that lasts decades is not. No reward warrants the sacrifice of an experience-rich life and the lessons, friendships, and memories that go with it. Live as much for the present as for the future, so someday you can look back on your life as fondly as you once looked forward. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, “We are always getting ready to live but never living.”
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