I was on a Carribean Cruise recently and was so impressed with the life philosophy of one of the entertainers, that I am seriously considering making it ten rules instead of nine. Her basic idea was that time is precious. While she used that as a spring board for thanking those who came to enjoy her show, her presnetation really has a great deal of resonance for college students who are probably in a position to waste more time than just about anyone else on the planet.
The performer suggested that every increment of time is precious and to make her point she suggested something like the following. If you want to understand how valuable a year is, talk to politicians who have to run campaigns that last several years. They can tell you how valuable a single year is. The same goes for students in college who might not be taking a particular course seriously enough only to find out that they have to spend yet another year in college or perhaps yet another slug of money that used to be enough to buy a house.
If you want to understand the value of a month, talk to a terminally ill patient who has been given 5 weeks to live. If you want to understand the value of a week, talk to someone on a ten-day vacation. If you want to understand the value of a day, talk to someone who got to the bed of his dying parent a day late. If you want to understand the value of an hour, talk to someone with a sick child who has to wait to see a doctor. If you want to understand the value of a minute, talk to a Super Bowl advertiser. If you want to understand the value of a second, talk to someone who narrowly escaped a horrific accident. And if you want to understand the value of a hundredth of a second, talk to the Olympic swimmer that placed second in a very close race.
Our college bound kids would do well to understand just how precious every moment is. If they made even half as much use of them as they ought to, they would all be way ahead of me.
