YOUNG VOICE
Destruction of distraction
A classmate who just got a near-failing grade in one of our hourly exams asked me, "How do you study, how come you get good grades, and do you have a secret?"
I stared at her straight and for a second, familiar scenarios entered my mind.
Those days when everybody else enjoyed the leisure of an exam-free week, I open some few chapters in our textbooks and read in advance. Those nights when everybody else couldn't risk some few hours beyond their bedtime, I couldn't help but fix myself some cups of hot chocolate which kept my eyes wide awake. Those moments when everybody else drowned in the addictive lure of computer games or text-messaging while midterms grew closer, I prevented myself from the possibility of cramming the day before a hundred-fifty-item exam which brought my determination higher.
When reality pulled me back, I saw her tapping her thumb into the keys of her cell phone with an expression of 'kilig'. I snatched her cell phone and held it, examined it for a few seconds and heaved something halfway between a sigh and a smirk. "You know what? I just don't get distracted a lot." She took her cell phone from my grip and giggled in reply. I wondered if she understood what I meant.
Goals, dreams, ambitions --- everybody has them. Maslow said that man, after fulfilling his physiological, psycho-social, and aesthetic needs must realize his self actualization needs --- to find fulfillment and realize one's potential. I agree, we all wanted to be Einsteins, Roosevelts, or Spinozas. But why is it that not all get to reach the highest level of self actualization? Maslow conducted a study to a population of college students and found out that what he believes to be the self-actualizers made up only one percent of the population.
This one percent may either have practiced the ideal behaviors or simply didn't succumb to distractions. The thought of being distracted primarily focuses on the youth's struggle of graduating from a degree with all the luring temptations of today's morally-shaken society. Some would attest that intimate relationships and commitments before getting a stable job or at least graduate may be a strong distraction. Every time your sweetheart would get on your nerves and you two end up with a misunderstanding, you can't deny but get distracted in your studies or even your very outlook. Some would claim that addiction to computer games or Internet surfing, staying more than five hours hooked into the monitor screen could allow you to withhold studying for tomorrow's exam. You could not avoid the growing urge to finish up one level or destroy all known two dimensional enemies. You could not help but submit to the vain desire to pimp-up your space in a dating site or chat your several hours with some person whom you barely even know. Distractions come in different forms, and just as goals, dreams and ambitions do, everybody has them.
I got my own share of distractions. I'm addicted to television programs, and if given the chance, I wouldn't dare to miss even a single episode of some crime-solving, disease-diagnosing dramas. There was a time when it was already the season finale of the program, but I have an upcoming exam to study for. For some minutes I was in a state of delirium, not knowing what to satisfy first, my wants or my possibility of graduating. Then, after some minutes of regression and self-awakening, I chose to sit in a corner and google my eyes over my huge textbook. I could wait for a couple of weeks for the replay.
Distractions are such if you let them. Computers remain as computers, helpful to communication and convenient research. They only become distractive when the person using them let them be. Relationships are intimate and securing; they only become distractive if the lovers let them be. I am certain we all have
the capacity to postpone our desires and addiction. We have the will and rational thought to choose, to modify, and to prioritize. We have to power to set limits and thus keeping us safe from these monsters of distraction.
Distracted?
Only if you let them be.
(For comments and reactions please send an email to reylangarcia@gmail.com or an SMS to 09186363090. View my blog at http://www.theyoungvoice.blogspot.com)