Breaks are Only Bonuses

It’s funny how students waited long during the vacation to go to school again, and when the school days came, demanded for breaks because their brains get mashed up. I read a trivia: The word school was derived from the Greek word “skhole” meaning “leisure or spare time”. I consulted dictionaries to confirm this information, and found out that it really was. Probably, it has its own reason for making school “school”, besides “skhole” also meant “philosophy”. The nature of a student is to study, but when life seems dreadful, studying becomes stuDYING. It’s an exaggerated expression, but it’s what shouts from a student’s heart, “I need a break.” For instance, August had already given us nine days of no classes. Some students went to their towns; some went out of town; some answered homework; some helped in house chores; some withdrew their insufficient sleeps and meals. Breaks give us some time to be free from stress, even for a short time. So, because of the some breaks, we tend to wish for more. This is the problem: we wish for too much breaks which we do not deserve. Our schooling life only requires us to study, learn, pass and be humane and good citizens. We complain that studying is tiring; we say it is repetitive. “We studied this before and it was difficult, and we study this today, and it is here again.” The question is, did we get it right this time? If yes, then the difficulty would have only existed on the first time. If no, maybe it depicts that you should have mastered that thing by now. Studying and learning, as part of our education, requires willingness. There are a lot of things available to be learned, but it doesn’t mean you need to grab them all. Education open new skills and spark up hidden potentials. But if you start to think that you get tired of learning, wonder simultaneously if learning gets tired of you. Remember that studying was something that the previous generations longed for. I had watched a show where a young man argued with his grandmother about graduating. The grandson point that not all graduates get employed and not all successful entrepreneurs are graduates. Somehow, life is full of ironies, but we must realize that there are a lot of paths to choose from, but the straightest among them is education. Learning is the product of studying with willingness and openness. The reason why some graduates remain unemployed or underemployed is explained in subjects in school like economics in terms of demands. But, we can still explain it morally. Determination is the answer. If you think you can do it, you will probably do it. Think of the profit you would get. Life is a battle; if you do not fight, you will die in the night. Education is an investment. The blame won’t always be to your education. It doesn’t require you to stay up until 2am doing homework after watching your favorite teleseryes from 8pm. It doesn’t tell you to dry up your eyeballs for four hours in front of the blue F book and print only a page of information from Yahoo! It doesn’t bring you to going home three hours late because of buying a pen in the mall. Stress doesn’t always come from the books and the professors. Most of the time, they are fruits of ignorance and fear. If we will strive to learn and willing to try our abilities, we would not waste too much time for getting our lessons right. It’s not bad to have breaks—it’s good! They are bonuses that we deserve after we have gone through hardships to achieve our short-term goals, so if what you’ve gone through cannot be classified as ‘hardships’. You are very lucky to have a break. You need to use it wisely, so that the next time you wish for more, you have the right to.