Sunday, March 29, 2009

I am robot

Greetings Earthlings. Just kidding, I haven't turned into that kind of robot. But I feel like some sort of programmed being, forced to finish task after task after task.

Thus far, my sensational weekend has included work, followed by work, and then after a brief break for some food, even more work.

Last night, I did two chapters of AP US history notes, and for those of you who have read American History by Alan Brinkley, those chapters aren't short. And today, I did 3 sections of math homework. So now, I am working on my English project due Monday. It's only worth about half of this quarter's grade. Not a big deal or anything. Did you catch my sarcasm? And after I do my project, I have to write my US thesis paper for Tuesday. And after that is done, I still have about 2348 other things left to do.

So, despite the fact that I sound as though I'm bemoaning my current work situation, I'm really just here to enlighten you. To me, these ridiculous amounts of work given that merit two weekend evenings given up, and suck up entire days seem unnecessary. Do you think that my parents were doing this much when they were in high school? I already know the answer. No. Way.

And this leads me to wonder, how did we enter this world where I will have done so much work by college, that I'll have burnt out? When did our society deem it acceptable to overload the current student so much? And, Why have mental, physical and emotional health been allowed to fall by the wayside the way they have?

This isn't just a rant from another tired, stressed student (although I am). This is a cry of concern. Sometimes I really do worry if I'll even have the energy or drive left to take on another four years of education. And what about grad school after that?

Students are being turned into robotic creatures as a result of what's loaded down on us. We have no choice but to shut down all other passions, and talents for our school work. It's all about getting that A, which, because of all the work, inevitably won't always be attained, but that we all strive for in vain anyway.

The days of becoming your own person are long gone. We've all been programmed by our environments to become toy action figures in the world's game of Risk, and there's little that we can do except suck it up, and accept that if we want to be successful, then being cast in plastic for a few years really isn't that bad.

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