Quarters
It has been almost two months since I have let go of my old apartment and my old lifestyle and moved into an entirely different kind of living. While I still have the same day job that I have always had since 2008, and continue to study for my master's degree in comparative literature, my life beyond those is completely different. I can say now that life after the change has been definitely much easier.
Now I get out of bed every morning at five minutes to seven, get ready for work, and I'm out walking to work by seven-fifteen. After work ends at five, I'm usually home by five-thirty. In my bedroom I don't have a television, which I have given up in 2002 anyway. I also have no computer there, no library, and no wifi. What I do is read on my Kindle, which is now loaded with only ten carefully selected books at a time. If I need to do some studying for a class or have some readings to deal with in preparation for a class paper or a class report, I bring them home with me from the office. When I need to write something I draft it by hand. I take notes by hand as well. I spend almost all of my evenings quietly studying, disconnected from the world except via voice calls and text messaging, on a cellphone that is kept on silent.
Living this way, I have gotten more studying done than ever. My old life had so many distractions. There was high-speed broadband, my laptop, external hard drives full of movies and TV shows and Kindle books. There was also my entire library with its wall of book spines inviting me to deviate from my study course and read something completely unconnected instead. There was also my notebooks and journals and fountain pens and inks, inviting me to doodle instead of study. And then there was house cleaning and laundry and general tidying up.
There's none of that now. And as the year — and the semester — comes to a close, I prepare to write two different final papers for two different comparative literature classes. I am approaching of the end of yet another year lived. I am grateful. I am grateful for the quiet and the time I now have full access to, so that I could concentrate on heavy theory. I can hear my own thoughts again. I can think clearly again.
[Image credit]
Now I get out of bed every morning at five minutes to seven, get ready for work, and I'm out walking to work by seven-fifteen. After work ends at five, I'm usually home by five-thirty. In my bedroom I don't have a television, which I have given up in 2002 anyway. I also have no computer there, no library, and no wifi. What I do is read on my Kindle, which is now loaded with only ten carefully selected books at a time. If I need to do some studying for a class or have some readings to deal with in preparation for a class paper or a class report, I bring them home with me from the office. When I need to write something I draft it by hand. I take notes by hand as well. I spend almost all of my evenings quietly studying, disconnected from the world except via voice calls and text messaging, on a cellphone that is kept on silent.
Living this way, I have gotten more studying done than ever. My old life had so many distractions. There was high-speed broadband, my laptop, external hard drives full of movies and TV shows and Kindle books. There was also my entire library with its wall of book spines inviting me to deviate from my study course and read something completely unconnected instead. There was also my notebooks and journals and fountain pens and inks, inviting me to doodle instead of study. And then there was house cleaning and laundry and general tidying up.
There's none of that now. And as the year — and the semester — comes to a close, I prepare to write two different final papers for two different comparative literature classes. I am approaching of the end of yet another year lived. I am grateful. I am grateful for the quiet and the time I now have full access to, so that I could concentrate on heavy theory. I can hear my own thoughts again. I can think clearly again.
[Image credit]
posted by Maryanne Moll | 12:01 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home