Schedules
Tomorrow I will be receiving my class schedules for the year and I am thinking about how significant a class schedule is in a person’s life. This simple schedule with a list of class names does so much to the receiver in just one mere second. By just glancing at the schedule the receiver will know part of their fate by just inferring what they have heard from others about the class combination they were given.
You see, these schedules determine the routine we will be living with for about half a year. Depending on which classes we are given (hopefully the ones we asked for) we will adopt a rhythm of life that will stick with us for that time. I guess we can call this the rhythm of school. For half a year there is a steady, consistent rhythm, like a human heart, and then during the summer that heart suffers a heart attack where the rhythm is broken. But then that heart is revived later on with a different rhythm, the new school year, adjusting to the new way of life, stronger than it was before.
I think it’s strange how a piece of paper can do something so powerful. There are wedding certificates, divorce documents, contracts; all simple pieces of paper that we have set meaning to as a society and that shape the way we live greatly. We just accept it. And we accept the way a schedule shapes our life. Not all of us may adjust to it well, but we all live with it until a new rhythm comes into our life.
If you think a piece of paper isn't so powerful, think about the most overpriced piece of paper possible: the college diploma. Some people pay a quarter of a million dollars essentially just for a certificate.
I agree with you about the importance of schedules; not only does it determine a rhythm, schedules have a huge impact in determining your friends, your social circle, your education. Seemingly small things like what period you have a certain class can have a huge effect (i.e. people who have a class later in the day score better on tests because they have more time to study and their friends in previous periods help them).
I don't think a piece of paper isn't powerful. I just think it's interesting how we allow it to be so powerful. I mean, certain documents literally control (to an extent) the lives some people live (for example, as you were saying, the diploma). I think it's interesting that we let those documents control our lives.
Yeah, this is interesting… although I dunno about summer being like a heart attack. I think that it's not natural for life to be consistent, like a heartbeat. It's like It in "A Wrinkle in Time" – the heartbeat of the schedule is so powerful that your life can't help but fall into pace with it. But I think it's sad; it shouldn't have to be that way. I much prefer the spontaneity of summer.