By By Lindsey Sherrill, Columnist
I was sitting at the office the other day when I started thinking. The subject simply would not get out of my head, and the more I thought, the angrier I got. I was sitting there fuming to myself when suddenly I thought, "Lindsey, don't just sit there, do something! You have a column you have to write and you have a medium to reach people so don't just sit there driving yourself crazy, get out and say something!"
So I guess that's what I'm going to do now. Yes, I know I'm an opinionated person. Yes, I know my ideas are not always the most politically correct.
I know all of those things but I'm going to speak up anyway. (That is, after all, the point of an "opinion" column, right?)
The subject that had me so riled is the lack of motivation I see around me. I know it affects a lot of people, but I am choosing to "pick-on" high school students today because they are the ones that I see needing the greatest wake up call, and because they are the ones that I can best relate to.
I cannot say that all high school students are unmotivated because I know that it is not true and I hate generalizations. Yet I can say that many, many are wasting precious time in an "I-don't-care" mentality. This hurts me to see and I know it is breaking the hearts of those adults who are trying to help them become something. I spoke with a high school teacher several days ago. She was near tears as she spoke of the apathy in the majority of her students. How can I help them, she said, if they don't care?
So now I speak directly to all of you, my friends, my enemies, my contemporaries. Wake up! Don't you care? How can you sit, day after day, never realizing that this is your life? Your life isn't out in the future somewhere. No! Your life is here now. Stop waiting and wasting time. Stop sleeping!
Don't you get it, don't you understand? No one can do anything for you. If you are ever going to be anything at all, no matter how great or how small, it has to start now. I know you probably aren't listening to me. I know I sound self-righteous. Call me preaching or blowing off steam. But if I can get one thing across right now I want it be this: Everything that you choose to do (or not do) today affects everything you do and will ever do. Remember: Today-not tomorrow- is the first day of the rest of your life.
Lindsey Sherrill is a columnist for The Advance and she admits to sleeping in class. She can be reached via email at lindsey_sherrill@hotmail.com