In college, I was FANTASTIC at wasting time. I just had so much of it, I had to improve my skills over the course of four years. In high school, they made me go to school 6 hours a day, and then, participating in "extracurriculars": add two more hours. Factor in eating, sleeping, talking on the phone and watching Friends, and I'd have a schedule as busy as any working adult.
If you really want to challenge your procrastination skills, you have to go to college. Two, maybe three, classes a day. Live, learn and eat all at the same location to cancel out any commute time. Sports and such things are courteously reserved for those who aren't at school to learn, so the scholastics don't have to waste any time on the courts or fields. You live with everyone you talk to, so cancel the time spent on the phone. Thus, the college bound 18-year-old is burdened with a 2-3 hour daily schedule, that is, for the most part, optional.
What would you do if your schedule, in the space of 3 months, was cut from 8 hours a day, to 2? This is a questioned reserved otherwise for retirees. So, I'll tell you what you do: You make sure neither of your 2 classes start before 11am. You skip breakfast, because you don't go to sleep until 3am. Besides the time spent consuming your 2 meals, you talk to your neighbors, you party, and you play on the Internet. (I use the word "play" not to demean collegiates, but because 99% of use of the brilliant tool we call "the Internet" could be classified as non-essential. Excepting, of course, Facebook.)
Fortunately, at college, you are surrounded by thousands of other 18- to 21-yr-olds, all burdened with the same schedule. Helping each other, you can fine tune your Internet surfing skills and consume all the best music, movies, networks and other entertainment the World Wide Web has to offer.
My skills have slipped, I am sad to say. No matter how hard I try to stay in touch, as years fill in the gap between me and university, I have a smaller and smaller clue as to what "the buzz" is. Occasionally, I contact some coeds for a reminiscent glimpse at what I would know if I spent a better part of my time trying to kill it with other clock spinners. It can be painful. You learn that your iBook G4, that you spent a fortune on a few years ago and thought made you look like a Mac-loving hipster, is really "so 2006" and you might as well be lugging around a green-screened Apple IIGS. But, most of the time I spend with my college-going cousins is filled with pearls of wisdom, as time spent with those that the Internet was truly made for only can be.
I couldn't attempt to share with you the benefits of a few hours with a 17-22 year old. However, I can reveal my newest toy: "Senuti". It will probably be inoperative by the time I post this, going the way of music-sharing methods of the past generation. However, it took talking to a college kid to learn that there is finally a way to upload music off of someone else's ipod into iTunes. I have doubled my music collection in the past 2 weeks. It's as exciting as someone giving you a mix tape. And that hasn't happened in a while either.
Of course, I don't have enough memory on my antiquated machine to hold any more music. But the option is out there. It makes me feel cooler. Younger. Like I could waste a bunch of time I should be writing hunting through friends iPods for tunes. Or blogging about it.
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