what's it all worth, anyway?

it is FAR too late, and i am FAR too unmotivated. WHERE did it all go? ugh...

i am convinced that university is a guise under which there is an underlying goal to stress students out BEYOND belief; perhaps ensuring our untimely demise due to stress-related illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, and the like. [one might wonder who the beneficiaries of the proliferation of these diseases might be...?] the amount of stress we are under at our relatively young age has been unprecedented in our parents and those before them. [no matter HOW much your parents say they did when they were your age, you can't tell me that milking cows and looking after a farm was mentally draining, you just can't.] the difference in our relatively insignificant stress compared to that of say, people fighting for their very existence in far away countries, is that our stress, comprised of incomprehensible amounts of information to memorize for exams, and seemingly inacheivable amounts of research to complete for papers and assignments, is one that we have KNOWINGLY and WILLINGLY accepted. we have actually invited this stress into our lives; it is stress that we LITERALLY pay for.

so is this stress, really necessary? if i live in afghanistan, and i'm stressed out about my family and i making it through the next day, i would say that's a good reason to stress. that's unavoidable, given the unfortunate circumstances. in comparison, me being stressed about my marks, my midterms, my assignments, just doesn't seem, well, worth it. we are SO lucky to have it so much better than so so so many people out there in the world, yet, we feel the need to make it tougher and tougher for ourselves. why is that?

i suppose it's human nature to always push on, and try to be the best one can be. the ideals of our capitalist society deem that we constantly need to work ourselves harder to earn more and more wealth via status, knowledge and of course, money. but is it ever enough? will we ever be satisfied? is the state of ultimate contentedness so elusive in our world? and if so, why is that, and what are we really pushing our limits for?

i don't believe that life is as complicated as we make it out to be...i just hope we all realize that while we still have the power to change it.

so chill, relax, c'est tranquille... ;)

soph*