Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The Lull

As a student I had often heard about the lull, the period straight after the end of the HSC in which we revert to the most basic needs of survival, eat and watch tv. To me this seemed impossible, after all, how could the excitement of freedom possibly vanish beneath the veil of day time television. Well, five weeks and several hundred episodes of Sponge Bob Squarepants later I'm starting to realize that 'The Lull' might not be the myth I thought it was. I find it hard to bring myself to get off the couch and even harder to walk down to Manhattan Super Bowl and ask for a job. This is not to say I am scared of work, I suffered through two years of preparing Happy Meals and Big Mac's, but I am reluctant to commit myself to anything that might resemble the confinement the HSC brought. So, after assuring my mum that, yes I will ask soon, I lay on the couch and occasionally rise to walk down the street and purchase a bottle of coke. My other most basic need.

Our bodies have collapsed to the seemingly endless exhaustion and aimlessness that life post HSC offers us. While most will snap out of this come UAI day when they will realize just what Uni books they have to buy, I am faced with a frightening possibility, another year like this because for better or worst I am going to take a gap year. Under my mothers wise guidance I created a mind map of the things I want to accomplish in the up coming year, and I must say that I might have had more free time in year twelve then I will in the gap year. Determined to get a job so that I can save up and travel as well as get a car in preparation for the long commute to Macquarie, work on my writing and art, take lessons in martial arts and also singing and dancing and do some volunteer work. Some of this I realise I just might not have the time for, but I still would like to give it a shot. So, how, when I have such high aims for the up coming 12 months find myself as a person who struggles to find the energy to even clean their own room.

My shame at this is made worse by the fact that most of my friends have already made to leap into paid employment, and I wonder how much longer my sister will allow me to lay on the couch... unemployed... while I still owe her money from my schoolies trip. Surely there must be something to get me moving, to motivate me. I have found a variety of things to start my mental process and ensure at least basic body movement, the latest of which has been this blog, things such as my writing, my social network and pure fear of growing bed sores. I plan to make the walk down to Manhattan Super Bowl this afternoon, whether or not I shall reach my destination is another matter entirely, but should I succeed it shall be an important jump on my road to escaping this lull and the horror of day time tv.

But for the moment Sponge Bob Squarepants is on...

1 comment:

Jim Belshaw said...

Clare, well done. These are rather wonderful posts.Do keep writing.