Time set aside to: “Read”
Reading is one of the more relaxing pastimes that one could have. And of course, I am not referring to reading as part of study or work (which usually doesn’t align with one’s interest) but as an active choice to read be it a book, an article or even a journal about something that sparks your interest and curiosity.
As we age, our commitments tend to grow with us. The amount of time we have to read usually decreases as we age into working adults, and may increase as we slowly prepare for retirement and old age. By that time, reading could be more challenging depending on one’s health (especially eyes and ears) condition. Furthermore, it is unwise to assume that one will still be around at retirement age since there is no guarantee of what can happen tomorrow. Setting aside enough time to read has always been a personal goal of mine. For the past two years, I have also been actively setting a reading goal of 40 books last year and 45 books this year. However, it doesn’t seem enough to keep me from deviating from my reading habits.
Increasingly, my allocated reading time got converted into “time to rush an academic project”, “time to catch up on lectures and readings”, “time to figure out work-related matters”, “time to finish up other miscellaneous tasks”, “time to do the remaining housework that I missed (usually because of additional work or overtime)”, and … The list of neverending tasks to do has been crippling me slowly day by day.
Reading is one way of releasing me from the reality that I have to face every single day. It is one of the activities that help me keep my balance between what I have to do and what I want to do. More importantly, reading brings me to the brilliant minds of others experiencing how they think, what they feel, and what they believe in. It’s interesting to read and find out more about the world when you don’t have the chance to really travel and experience it on your own. Hence, setting aside a fixed amount of time per week (if impossible, then consider per month) to read remains such a priority.
