By Siya Gauri Singh
On average, an individual spends 26 years of their life sleeping, with an additional seven years spent trying to fall asleep.
We spend 13 years working our jobs, 4.5 years eating and 11 years in front of screens.
And yet, we only spend about 1.7 years at school, one year socialising and one year exercising.
In total, that is 65.2 years of our lives just gone. To put that into perspective, the average life expectancy in Australia is 83.2 years.
With so much time spent on what we have to do, what’s left for what we want to do? How much time do we actually use to live? Eighteen years equals 6,570 days if each year has 365 days. That’s 157,680 hours, give or take.
It may seem like a lot of hours to spend, but most of us are close to, or have already, spent that much time on Earth. And just how much time was spent doing the things we like? The things that make us smile, that make us think, that make us feel? I don’t know about you, but for me, the number is not nearly as big as I would want it to be.
When I was younger, I had a lot of plans for my future. Like, ‘when I get older, I want to learn how to skateboard’. Or ‘when I get older, I want to learn how to play the guitar’. But now that I am older, I find that so many of those dreams have been lost in the vacuum of space.
A lot of the time, I catch myself making excuses like ‘I can’t because of school’ or ‘I have so much work to do’ — and it’s true. VCE is hard, but it’s my priority right now. And soon, University is going to be my priority. And then, soon after, my career will be my priority. Making money, getting that promotion, buying that designer bag, and the list goes on.
At what point will living my life, doing the things that I want, becoming the person I always dreamed to be, become my priority?
According to renowned American author, Annie Dillard, “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives”. She’s right. We think that someday, we will break through this endless cycle, that someday we will do the things that we promised ourselves we will do. And we keep believing that ‘till the day that we die, never once reaching that someday.
Making that someday today is in our hands.
Now, I’m not saying that we should quit school or never work so that we can fulfil our lives. What I am saying is, we need to shift our priorities. We need to make living our lives with meaning our priority.
Yes, I have a lot of work from school, but I could find ten minutes to practise the guitar, or chat with my family about my day, or read a few pages of that book. I could find ten minutes to do what I love.
And I promise you, those ten minutes will be meaningful, they will be valuable and they will be enjoyed. So let’s make the most of the 18 years of living we have. Don’t compromise on your dreams, or aspirations, or what makes you smile. Whether you want to learn scuba diving or just spend some time looking at the sunset, make your life worthwhile. Because only you can do that.
So, what will you spend ten minutes on today?
