Just Chill Out!

This week for Sociology I did nothing. Yup, that’s right, my teacher assigned us the nothing assignment in which we had to sit somewhere and do nothing, just observe our surroundings. On Tuesday I took the bus to school for the first time all year. I was a bit hesitant to take on this task since I take the bus after school and talk to all the kids on the bus. Although it was a bit uncomfortable not being able to talk to any of my friends, I took the challenge anyway.

I extended my legs along the length of the ugly, brown bus seat, crossed my arms, and observed. I listened to the conversations that my friends were having around me, and I realized all the conversations were surprisingly short since I didn’t have any input in them. In addition to being mute for ten minutes, I faced a very mean situation. At the last bus stop, this boy asked me if he could sit next to me, since there were no other seats left. I continued to sit there, following the guidelines of the homework assignment. I just stared at him, not being able to move. He asked me a few more times until he finally gave up. I’m not sure if that was the point of the assignment, but I felt so bad. After five minutes slowly passed by I was starting to get irritated and fidgety. I needed to move my hands, lips, and legs.

I felt so useless for those ten minutes. I am constantly filling up the minutes of my life. Whether this time is spent on school work, talking, texting, eating or sleeping, I am constantly occupying my time with an activity. If I’m not doing something I feel as if I’m wasting my time. Even when I sleeping, yes I’m re-energizing my body, but I think to myself “I COULD be doing something more useful right now.”

After completing the nothing assignment I realized that in our society we are constantly taking the time to do stuff and we hardly ever take the time to just chill out. There is not a time that I’m not thinking about how my homework I have and what plans I have to make for the upcoming weekend. Even my thoughts are constantly changing; there is never a time that I’m thinking about nothing.

I’ve learned that I should take at least five minutes out of the 1,440 minutes in my day to take a deep breathe and empty my mind of all that I’m stressing about. Just chill out.