Lazy Boy on Campus: Can I be lazy after graduation?

“Lazy Boy On Campus” is a weekly column on how to embrace laziness while maintaining a jam packed schedule. Easy, right?

Last week I registered for classes for the final time. For most people, that would be a time of celebration. One final semester and then I’m done with school for the near future; I won’t have to take classes that start and end at random hours. I’ll have a set schedule and weekends will finally be free to relax. And yet even with all of those perks, I’m terrified. A large portion of that is because I don’t have a job lined up yet, but there is something else that has been nagging at me for a while: when I leave UConn, will I still be able to be lazy?

I know that seems like a dumb question. After all, I’ll have a set schedule, I’ll know when I can take time to rest and I’ll know when I have to put time into actually working. But for me, that’s not all there is to being lazy. Remember back to the beginning of the year when I talked about what being lazy is? Being lazy is giving yourself me-time. It’s time for you to relax and to let the world flow by around you. It means taking things a little more slowly than you normally might, and really enjoying where you are.

Up until this point, everyone has told me that the best time of my life will be in college; and up until now I’ve definitely been enjoying myself. We go to one of the best research-universities in the country and we have an amazing basketball program. There are great people and great organizations and all in all, it has so far been the best time of my life.

But if that’s the case, then what happens after graduation? Have I hit my peak in life? Is all of that enjoyment going to drop when I get out of here and actually start working? People say that if you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life. But at the end of the day, work becomes work, and sometimes you even need a break from the things that you love to do.

When I get a real job, will I be able to take that break? Or will I instead wake up every single day and spend all of my energy only to have to get up and do the same thing the next day? That’s what being a real adult seems like and it’s honestly terrifying. If that’s what my future is going to be like, I don’t know how exactly I’m going to balance the “lazy boy” portion of my life.

I know that all of these questions that I’m asking are very hard to answer and if I don’t have answers, I certainly don’t expect any of you to have the answers either.

What I do know is that if that’s what the future holds, then now is the time to get all that you can out of college and out of life, even the lazy things. Obviously a lot of that will come from your personal decisions, but a lot of it will also come from how you organize yourself for the future.

In this case, that means how you organize yourself for next semester. We are three-quarters of the way through this semester, and at this point in time, you probably know the minimum amount of lazy that you need to survive a semester. Think about that while you’re building your schedule. If you know that you need eight hours of sleep every night, then avoid taking those early classes. I don’t care how much you try to hype yourself up, you won’t make it to class. Do you think that you need to hang out with friends in the evening a few times a week? Then maybe you should avoid the night classes, despite how easy they are. Also make sure you leave some time for a few basketball games; they’re kind of a big deal.

You need to do you. If this is the best time of our lives, then we need to do everything in our power to make sure that it really is enjoyable. If you need me next semester, you can find me attempting to soak up a little bit of everything this campus has to offer. If this is my last time to be lazy, I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it.

Amar Batra is a senior staff photographer and opinion’s staff columnist for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email amar.batra@uconn.edu. He tweets at @amar_batra19.