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There is No Such Thing as ‘Wasted’ Time
And you can’t save it, either.
During the COVID lockdowns, my daughter, who was once again living at home, said she was thinking about dropping her college physics class.
It was hard, she said, to learn physics remotely. She thought if she tried again the following semester when she could learn in person, that would be better.
That made sense to me. She seemed to know, intuitively, what would be best for her. But she considered plodding along, even if it meant a poor grade, even if it meant she didn’t grasp the material.
What was holding her back from making what was probably a good decision for herself?
“But if I quit, these last few weeks will have been wasted time,” she argued.
“How is that possible?” I asked her. “Don’t you have to learn this material one way or another?”
“Well, yeah,” she answered.
“Okay then. And anyway, there’s no such thing as wasted time.”
While I can’t deny I’ve played a role, unconsciously, in passing down the belief of being able to waste time, it seems to me it has grown on my daughter since she’s been off on her own. She, like much of society, believes that each moment of life is supposed to be capitalized on, each quarter…
