It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. When I logged on and saw that the last time I had published anything was in March, I was a little shocked. It couldn’t have been that long, could it? I used to be putting out a post once or twice a week, and now I hadn’t had one in 9 months? That couldn’t be right. Originally I had planned to write about going to the gym, or not getting fat from eating too many Christmas cookies, or maybe even how great it was to watch the Lakers lose a Christmas day game to my beloved LeBron James (hey, just because I’ve been gone for so long doesn’t been my Laker hate disappeared too). But as soon as I saw that it had been that long, I realized I wanted to say something on the matter of time, and how there never seems to be enough of it.
Tomorrow actually marks my one year anniversary of joining the real working world. When I started working full-time on the day after Christmas 2012, I had no idea how much that would change my life. Suddenly, days seemed much, much shorter. I fell into a routine. Wake up. Breakfast. Work. Gym. Home. Shower. Dinner. T.V. Pass out. Rinse and repeat. Each day ended up feeling just a little bit shorter. And each day it felt like I had less and less time to do the things I loved, like sitting down for an hour to crank out a blog post.
Recently, someone asked me if I had undertaken any special projects lately, if I was doing anything interesting with my free time. “No,” I replied. “I just don’t have a lot of time on my hands anymore.” The more I thought about that answer, the more I hated it. The more I realized what a bullshit answer it really was. And with that I realized how much I want to change that answer. What good is it living life if it isn’t the life you want to live?
It isn’t a matter of finding time anymore. It is a matter of making time. In order for me to do the things I love, I need to be proactive. Instead of watching that extra hour of T.V. every night, I could spend that time writing. Instead of sitting on the internet being unproductive, I could work a Sudoku. Instead of staying that extra hour at work, I could leave early and hit the gym so that I have more time to prepare a delicious meal once I get home. These are all things that I love to do, but in order to accomplish them I need to go after them, instead of falling into the routine of every day life.
Over the last year, I’ve turned down a lot of opportunities to do things because I had work, was too tired, too lazy. The convenience of watching 6 straight hours of Netflix episodes far outweighed the struggle of having to get out from under a warm blanket on the weekends. But those are wasted hours, time that could be spent doing so much more. Every once in a while, a lazy day in front of the T.V. is just fine. But when it starts to become routine, those lost hours are never coming back.
Last weekend, I took Friday off of work and went up to Big Bear to enjoy one of my true loves: snowboarding. It had been too long. The rush of carving down the slopes. Hitting my first jump of the season. Falling and knowing it was going to leave a bruise the next day. Then I did it all again on Saturday, just to make sure I knew what I was missing. At no point did I ever feel like I was wasting my time. In fact, it was the complete opposite; that entire trip felt like the best way for me to allocate my time for that entire weekend. And it felt great. It was the most fun I had in a long time. I’m going back next week.
This morning I woke up and instead of watching the same replays on SportsCenter for 3 hours I did a Sudoku. I was rusty, but I finished it. Then I tried another, harder one. About halfway through I realized I had two 1s in the same row. Fuck. Better luck next time. And for me, next time will be soon.
I know that this is no where near my best writing that I’ve ever done. But I’m getting back on the horse because it’s something I love to do. I’m going to stumble a couple of times, just like I did while snowboarding and Sudokuing (that’s right I just made that a verb!), but eventually I’ll be back to my old self. Expect weekly posts for the foreseeable future.
You hear the phrase “Make the change” all the time now. I don’t think I truly grasped that phrase until more. If anything, it’s more of a challenge than a saying. It’s easy to become complacent with what you are doing with your life. Don’t do that. Make the change, make the time. You won’t regret it when you do.
