It has been nearly a year since I penned an opinion piece for The Oredigger. Much has changed in that time and now I sit poised to finish my career at Mines and venture into “the real world.” The truth is toward the end of the original “Two Cents” series I began to lose steam and finding interesting topics of discussion simply took a back seat to school and life. Alas, being in my last semester I once again have time to (hopefully) stir up discussion on campus.
The format will still be the same: ~300 words, 1 topic, and just enough impiety to get things off the ground. For the remainder of this piece I’ll be talking about everyone’s favorite pastime: planning.
Planning is what keeps people from going crazy. Planning is what makes people crazy in the first place. There are circumstances which require every ounce of attention when there is not a free moment to spare (finals week comes to mind). Lists are made, time is saved, and deliverables appear. The best plans are multi-layered mixtures of short and long-term goals- a scenario where one attempts to have it all.
This kind of planning helps people pass tests, graduate college, get jobs… etc. However, despite our highly-computerized schedule-synchronized world, planning cannot ensure quality of life. It is impossible to plan to love, relate, grieve, cherish… etc. Simply put: our humanity requires that we separate ourselves from highly-linear society to “stop and smell the roses.”
At the end of the day we simply can’t plan away all of the randomness that exists in the world. This, I would posit, is not a bad thing. Realize that even with the best plans and intentions, real life still requires genuine flexibility.
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