That Religious Guy: Making up for lost time

..... So where does this typical Monday afternoon find me doing? Well, I'm finishing AP Government definitions while listening to 89.0 RFI Monde French talk radio. It always seems that the last week of break is the moment when people choose to kick it into gear and start doing home work, something that could have been done earlier. I am notorious for procrastination, for that sloth that corrupts students and leads them down the terrible path of going to movies with friends instead of writing their college personal statements. Yet ironically, I tend to wish I had more time to complete all the things on my to-do list. But it's time for me and many of my procrastinating pals to learn that wishing for more time can never affect our 24 hour day. We have to make time, to get time.

..... Wishing for more time merely begets regrets (Am I not a poet?). A two week break is certainly a time to relax and enjoy life, hence its name, but as high schools seniors, we can no longer afford such luxuries. Time is literally money, money in the sense of future income rather than present profit.

..... Not wanting to get left behind, I have my whole year planned out in terms of my college future. Tomorrow, I will accompany many of my friends to a visit to University of the Pacific where the plan is to that we each shadow a student who has the same major as we are deciding to take. October will also be seeing me travel on an all-expenses paid flight to Divine Word College, run by the very generous Society of the Divine Word. At DWC, I'll be experiencing World Mission Sunday and a multicultural festival as well as seeing for myself what seminary life holds. In November, the Congregation of Holy Cross is paying half price for me to attend a come-and-see retreat for the University of Notre Dame's Old College program.

..... I still, however, have to get down and dirty to get my personal statement finished for the University of Portland. Deep down, I know I can complete it, but I have yet to begin. The first step in any endeavor is definitely the most challenging. I keep thinking I'll do it eventually. But eventually soon becomes inevitably and inevitably soon festers into someday. "Someday I'll finish my personal statement." Doesn't really have a ring to it like "I've finished my personal statement guys!" right?

..... Sooner or later I'll have to buckle down and get to writing, but alas, my schedule is just to full of relaxation days that I can't seem to find an opening. For all of us in the same boat, let's begin making time for such college preparation activities by setting a day of pure trabajo because the more we wish for more time, the less time we end up having.

- Jeremy Dela Cruz