STOP, STOP, STOP... | Teen Ink

STOP, STOP, STOP...

February 7, 2009
By writingis4ever PLATINUM, Calabasas, California
writingis4ever PLATINUM, Calabasas, California
26 articles 0 photos 21 comments

I was shocked to find out. I thought I was the only one- it was too unusual- way too unusual for someone else to do it too. But as it turns out, there is someone else who is also forced to physically cover up the remaining pages of a book when nearing the end to prevent her self from skipping ahead to that last line.

But why do we do this? We know that the author wrote each and every paragraph for a reason, so why would we disregard any of them as unimportant? Why is it so paramount for us to know the ending, and to know it now?

As I've thought about this, I have realized that skipping ahead to that anticipated last line is symbolic of something much greater. Skipping pages is not just characteristic of an obsessive reader; it is characteristic of anyone living in our modern world.

Society teaches us to go. GO, GO, GO. If we stop, we might just fall into a ditch, left to wither away in the dark forever. So we must go. GO, GO, GO.

You've seen all the advertisements; you know what I'm talking about. More than half of the ads that so pleasantly disrupt my T.V. shows are to 'save you time' or 'accomplish the same task in half the time' or even to 'virtually eliminate all preparation time' (one-minute meals!).

But why is our society so preoccupied with time when have so little of it- maybe 100 years at most?

It is because our minds have all been permanently stamped. We have been taught that what's best to come is always at the end, so we must speed to reach the end as quickly as possible.

While this certainly holds true if you're speeding through dinner to get to dessert, it proves true for little else. Often, the best moments emerge from the beginning of a relationship or the middle of a struggle. Instead of racing to the finish line, we should resist this GO, GO, GO world by appreciating what's happening now, right now, because who knows, this moment might be the best one. And once we've realized what we've missed by rushing, we can never, ever go back.

So for those of you who skipped to the last line of this column, I advise you, go back and read the middle part too. It was written just for you.


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This article has 2 comments.


joeyskeeper said...
on Nov. 12 2009 at 11:04 am
This is a great, insightful piece. Keep writing, you are very talented!

on Feb. 15 2009 at 8:53 pm
hootiepippin BRONZE, Wayne, Pennsylvania
1 article 0 photos 10 comments
why does our society only have 100 years at the most? that wasn't explained very well.