Balance

I would like to touch on the subject of balance. Throughout our lives, this concept of balance has come up. Balance is always a recurrent issue . How much of each ingredient makes the perfect soup? At what volume should each instrument be to produce a harmonious collection of sounds that is pleasing to the ear? Balance is at the heart of everything we do. Proper balance furthers our goals, while excess and deficiency hinder them.

In our daily lives we strive to find the right balance between opposing forces: work and home, school and play, self control and indulgence, etc. We find, however, that many people don't always balance, and an aspect of the whole is being used in excess.

For anyone that has been to college or read an article about a college, a common topic of issue is binge drinking. Students are a perfect example of people that both do and use many things to excess, but also know more about balance than they are usually given credit for.

Many college students find a pitfall in balancing studying and socializing. Whether that pitfall leads to arrest, failing out of college, or death, the problem is usually a lack of balance. But most college students graduate, get a job, and get on with their life. Even after all the horror stories of deaths from binge drinking, failing out of college, and going to jail, they didn't fail out of their classes, they still have their friends and family, and got what needed to be, done.

College students, 18-24, are fresh out of high school, ready for something new, and the most prone to immaturity and excess. So how can this group of rambunctious, binge drinking, bar hopping young adults balance school, work and play successfully? People in this age group are in their prime physically. Their bodies can take the biggest beatings, can take the most mistakes, and recover to lead healthy, productive lives. Their substance is at its most durable and resilient, and they are full of energy; ready to take life by the reins and conquer all obstacles.

Here is the important part that we often forget about: it is that when college students aren't out at the frat parties at night, they aren't drinking more at their dorms. They are taking care of work. Doing their papers, making power-points, writing speeches. Many are involved with activities on campus, sports teams, or bands. Many also have part-time jobs or internships. That's a lot of work. And with all that energy spent on laying the groundwork (substance) for the future, they must balance it with energy spent on groundwork for the present; fun and play.

I agree, binge drinking is not healthy at all. But lets not bog them down with restrictions and judgments that will frustrate them more, and foster more rebellion. Instead, we should be encouraging them to pursue what they love; major in things that they truly love, not where the money is. They have the energy and thus the power to help everyone. They are the change. We should embrace the change they can bring to us and encourage them to change the world for the better, rather than allowing our fear of change to cause it to be worse.

This is my ode to you, college students. I read a quote today in a Hindu Myths book.

"Visvakarman said, ' Your form is hard to bear,

for it has excessive energy.'"

We cannot understand how or why college students act the way they do today (even for those of us that went to college). And adopting that lifestyle of balance later in life is hard, if not impossible. But they are here to try and help us, not bring the rest of us down. They want to be the change in the world as much as we want to change the world.

Fearing change causes the change to be painful. By embracing change, we will make that change better. The world is constantly changing, and we have to live for it. When we go on, do we really want to leave it in bad shape for our children? I love my children. The next generation, the college students, are here to help. They are the change. Embrace them.