Always Faithful, Always Ready

30-Day Writer’s Boot Camp Day 5

Today is a two-part writing process of always being ready to write even at the most inopportune moments and writing about what irritates me when I run into frustrating moments and can’t really write.

What surprising place can you write? Challenge yourself to find the most unusual place and time.

I haven’t actually done this yet, but I suspect that there are going to be a few places that I will whip out my scratch sheet of writing paper or my notebook to scribble some thoughts. I already grade papers in the dugout during my softball games, so I don’t think it would be any surprise to my teammates that I’m writing some things down in a notebook. It surprises other teams, however, and people who don’t know me. I could also see myself jotting down some notes while standing in the hall at school as students are coming into my classroom. Maybe those don’t seem strange to anyone else, but I would get some unusual looks.

Detox: Give yourself permission to vent. Give yourself a place to put your frustrations.

Rachel suggests even writing an angry letter and ripping it up. I think I will write the angry letter, but it will be published for the world to see.

Dear Whoever Decided to Make a Day Only 24 Hours,

Why did you do this? What made you decide that a day should only have 24 hours in it? The sun rises and sets at different times during the days and certainly during the different months and seasons. Why couldn’t the day be 36 hours? Or 40? The world would be a much happier place if we had a 36 hour day. Let me explain.

Most of us work for 8 hours of our day, and some of us work even more than that. Science shows that the average person needs around 8 hours of sleep to function properly and allow the body and the brain to heal itself from the previous day’s labors. That’s 16 hours of our day already gone to aspects of our lives that must be done if we want to be happy, healthy, and productive (and able to make our mortgage payments). That only leaves 8 hours out of the day to do other things. Unfortunately, those other things involve showering and getting ready for work. Cooking and cleaning the house. Commuting. By the time we complete the chores of the day, there are only a few hours of recreational time left, and we have to pick which ones to do on that day.

Take a look at my son who is a sophomore in high school. The other day he went to school all day. After school, he went home to change for his baseball double-header before we drove for 40 minutes to his games. He had to be there an hour early to warm up, and we didn’t get home until after 10 PM. Then he had to do homework which means that he didn’t get 8 hours of sleep after playing baseball for almost 3 hours. During this time, I also struggled to get everything done that I needed to. While he played, I had to grade papers, keeping me from being able to pay close attention to the game. I also did not get 8 hours of sleep.

If we had a 36-hour day, he could have time to do his homework and sleep extra hours before he had to be to school the next day. I would have been able to pay attention to his game, go home to grade, and sleep 8 hours before going to work. Do you see how much trouble you’ve caused the world? Many Americans are sleep-deprived and over-worked with very little time to spend on hobbies that could make them happier, healthier people. Many Americans also suffer from health issues that could have been prevented if they just had a little more time to work out.

I hope you’re happy. You are single-handedly responsible for unhappiness, sleep deprivation, and the obesity epidemic. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Angrily,

Laura