Is this really “the fullest”?

Everyone is always telling me to live life to the fullest or live everyday like it’s your last but here I am, sitting in bed, at 10 o’clock at night, finishing an Honors English assignment at the last minute because I procrastinated.

Is this what my life has come to? Is this me living life to the fullest? Every time I am stressing about finishing a math worksheet or studying for a biology test I think back to this. Teachers try their best to tell me that I’m going to have to know how to find the area of a circle in order to grocery shop, but I have a hard time believing it.

For generations we have normalized the idea that going to a four-year college, getting a degree, finding a job, getting married and having kids is the only socially acceptable path after high school. I just don’t get why I have to worry about getting an “A΅ on a test when that test won’t matter to anyone in the next 20 years. There are so many more important things I could be doing besides the two hours of homework I’m assigned every night.

I could die tomorrow and I don’t want to die knowing that I spent the last night of my life finishing up a math problem. I don’t want to die in regret because I put all of my energy into school instead of into things that give me lasting memories.

Mia Speir

Spokane