The Art of Doing Nothing

Sitting still seems like a simple idea until you actually attempt to do it.  For high school students in this day and age, the idea of sitting still and doing absolutely nothing seems ridiculous.  Inertia itself contradicts nearly every possible opinion concerning the most productive use of a student’s time: our parents want us to perform incredible balancing acts between our grades and extracurricular activities, our teachers want us to get ahead on the extended assignment they assigned last month, colleges want us to cure cancer before reaching legal adulthood, and all we really want to do is watch Christmas movies.  Keeping these expectations in mind, doing nothing seems like a foolish waste of precious time, when in reality, it serves as a reminder to breathe.

“I am absolutely going to die of stress” and “there’s no way I’ll finish this by tomorrow!” appear as constant reminders of common sentiments among Marymount students and high school students in general.  On an average day, we spend 435 minutes at school thinking, reading, writing, talking, and hopefully learning something useful.  In fact, I view it as a small miracle that we can remain standing long enough to get on the bus and go home at the end of the day.  This level of concentration, exhausted by 3:15, doesn’t even include the time some students take to attend soccer practice or play rehearsals before returning home to confront relentless hours of homework.  And let’s face it: when you get home from school, you would much rather binge-watch your favorite shows on Netflix than enter the grueling depths of never-ending history discussion questions.

I must say I have come to appreciate the few moments throughout the year that accompany a lack of responsibility, and I think this feeling reveals itself most strongly in the liberating steps propelling you out of Cantwell after your last final.  In that instant, you feel whole and refreshed: you have learned so much and now face a valuable period of time in which to avoid using your newfound knowledge at all costs.  Despite this overwhelming sense of freedom, more tasks quickly overwhelm you.  In the winter, strains emerge to ensure you buy Christmas presents for your family on time and make enough plans with your friends to consider yourself “socially acceptable.”  Don’t misinterpret my message: the slight anxiety that accompanies holiday shopping definitely loses to the massive amount of math formulas you had to memorize for your final; however, we rarely encounter a moment to stay still and just breathe.  Acknowledging the mental capacity required in a year for both work and fun, I present a simple challenge for this winter vacation: take a moment to do nothing.  For an hour or even a whole day, do a lot of nothing!  Simply unplug from technology, avoid other people and think a little bit.  On second thought, if you really want to do nothing, don’t think at all! Leave your mind completely blank and let yourself breathe for the first time since last summer.  It may sound silly, but forgetting to do nothing will impede your attempts to do a lot of something next semester.  In fact, do so much nothing that by the time school starts, you will hunger for a little bit of something.