This I Believe
I have never been one to travel life in the fast lane; it’s always been me taking my sweet old time to get anywhere, whether it is from procrastination for homework, taking time to go slowly in relationships, or even in physical activities. In my opinion, being rushed is no fun and if I am hurrying to complete things I become stressed out. That’s why I believe in taking my time and traveling along the slower road of life, enjoying it as I go and stopping to smell the flowers.
I think that my belief in taking my time partially stems from my physical activities. I have never been a particularly fast runner, and as a child I never enjoyed the sports where I had to run fast for long periods of time. That’s why when I played soccer, I liked being the goalie since for a majority of the game I could sit back and watch, but once it was my turn to play and save a shot, I could be ready to go. If I were to run a mile, I definitely would not have the quickest mile time. However, this doesn’t particularly bother me. Since I have started to regularly go to the gym, I am able to run over a mile without stopping; it doesn’t bother me that I am not running at a full sprint like the others on the track – I am perfectly content with running at my own pace and just completing my goal of running a mile.
Other than physically, my belief to take things slowly is also seen through my relationships. Right now I have been dating my current boyfriend for over two years. That may seem like a long time, and for many young couples in our modern society two years is too long to be in a single relationship. However, we are perfectly happy the way we are. When we started dating, we never intended to rush our relationship along too quickly; I, for one, think that “love” is a very powerful word, and I had refrained from saying it until the two of us were mature enough to understand it, so that it is not just a word for us. If we had said that to each other too quickly, I think that our relationship would be much more superficial and would not mean as much to either of us as it does now. Similarly, I believe in taking the physical aspects of relationships slowly because I do not believe that the physical gratifications of a relationship are necessary in order to find love and to form a true bond between two people. Some people think that the physical part of a relationship is most important, and thus proceed very quickly rather than focusing on the emotional aspect. Although some people may think it is “weird” that we haven’t done much after being together for two years, neither of us feels pressured to move along faster than we are comfortable. Since I believe in taking the steps in a relationship slowly, I feel as if I have been able to be a part of a greater and deeper understanding of my boyfriend and I, and we are connected more deeply on an emotional level. That, in my opinion, is how we are able to continue dating even though I am in college in Cincinnati while he is back home in Virginia.
Now into the school-orientated part of my belief. I am a firm believer of procrastination - that is, as long as the work gets done. I almost never start a project or homework the night it is assigned because for me, there is no need to worry about completing something before it is even due. For example, in my government class from high school, I had a teacher who assigned at least one essay per week. That’s a lot of writing, considering some of the essays had to be over seven pages long! While some of my friends worried about getting it completed on time, starting to incessantly highlight and type away into the night, I put the essay in the back of my mind until the weekend. Of course when they were assigned, I did think about it some; I made a mental plan of when I could do it, and how much time would be needed to complete it. Then, once the weekend rolled around, I knew that I had enough time to finish it. By planning to write my essays but waiting until the day before it was due, I was able to go about the rest of my week without worrying about when I would be completing it. While there never seems as if there are enough hours in the day, if I budget my time correctly I have found that I will get all of my work done sooner or later, although sometimes it does result in some late nights studying. The same has worked out in college so far; although I have lots more work, I am still able to plan out when everything needs to be done so that at each day I will have completed the work that is due the next while still managing to get a decent amount of sleep. Taking my time to complete my assignments works for me because I am still able to complete my work without all the worry of completing an assignment immediately as it is assigned.
This is why I believe in taking life in slower strides. Life the way I view it is so much simpler and less stressful this way, and by taking things more slowly I am more able to get to know people, know how the pace at which to push myself, as well as being able to budget my time in a way that works for me. Why hurry when there’s no rush?
I think that my belief in taking my time partially stems from my physical activities. I have never been a particularly fast runner, and as a child I never enjoyed the sports where I had to run fast for long periods of time. That’s why when I played soccer, I liked being the goalie since for a majority of the game I could sit back and watch, but once it was my turn to play and save a shot, I could be ready to go. If I were to run a mile, I definitely would not have the quickest mile time. However, this doesn’t particularly bother me. Since I have started to regularly go to the gym, I am able to run over a mile without stopping; it doesn’t bother me that I am not running at a full sprint like the others on the track – I am perfectly content with running at my own pace and just completing my goal of running a mile.
Other than physically, my belief to take things slowly is also seen through my relationships. Right now I have been dating my current boyfriend for over two years. That may seem like a long time, and for many young couples in our modern society two years is too long to be in a single relationship. However, we are perfectly happy the way we are. When we started dating, we never intended to rush our relationship along too quickly; I, for one, think that “love” is a very powerful word, and I had refrained from saying it until the two of us were mature enough to understand it, so that it is not just a word for us. If we had said that to each other too quickly, I think that our relationship would be much more superficial and would not mean as much to either of us as it does now. Similarly, I believe in taking the physical aspects of relationships slowly because I do not believe that the physical gratifications of a relationship are necessary in order to find love and to form a true bond between two people. Some people think that the physical part of a relationship is most important, and thus proceed very quickly rather than focusing on the emotional aspect. Although some people may think it is “weird” that we haven’t done much after being together for two years, neither of us feels pressured to move along faster than we are comfortable. Since I believe in taking the steps in a relationship slowly, I feel as if I have been able to be a part of a greater and deeper understanding of my boyfriend and I, and we are connected more deeply on an emotional level. That, in my opinion, is how we are able to continue dating even though I am in college in Cincinnati while he is back home in Virginia.
Now into the school-orientated part of my belief. I am a firm believer of procrastination - that is, as long as the work gets done. I almost never start a project or homework the night it is assigned because for me, there is no need to worry about completing something before it is even due. For example, in my government class from high school, I had a teacher who assigned at least one essay per week. That’s a lot of writing, considering some of the essays had to be over seven pages long! While some of my friends worried about getting it completed on time, starting to incessantly highlight and type away into the night, I put the essay in the back of my mind until the weekend. Of course when they were assigned, I did think about it some; I made a mental plan of when I could do it, and how much time would be needed to complete it. Then, once the weekend rolled around, I knew that I had enough time to finish it. By planning to write my essays but waiting until the day before it was due, I was able to go about the rest of my week without worrying about when I would be completing it. While there never seems as if there are enough hours in the day, if I budget my time correctly I have found that I will get all of my work done sooner or later, although sometimes it does result in some late nights studying. The same has worked out in college so far; although I have lots more work, I am still able to plan out when everything needs to be done so that at each day I will have completed the work that is due the next while still managing to get a decent amount of sleep. Taking my time to complete my assignments works for me because I am still able to complete my work without all the worry of completing an assignment immediately as it is assigned.
This is why I believe in taking life in slower strides. Life the way I view it is so much simpler and less stressful this way, and by taking things more slowly I am more able to get to know people, know how the pace at which to push myself, as well as being able to budget my time in a way that works for me. Why hurry when there’s no rush?