Listening to:

Van Wilder – Original Soundtrack
08 – Okay by Swirl 360

I’ve learned a couple important life lessons recently. One of them is that one should never put oneself in such a situation where one feels an undeniable need to play catch-up afterward. I can’t tell you how I came across this revelation, but I can tell you one thing: playing this dangerous game requires a specific skill set and a fair amount of energy, and when it’s all over, you’re left feeling strangely breathless yet unsatisfied.

Take my latest digressions and distractions for example.

All of last week, in my horrible state of illness, I felt as if I couldn’t eat a crumb. So I didn’t. One week and -6 lbs later, I was 80% recovered from the flu, but I felt as if I had missed an entire week of eating, so I decided to try to catch-up. I eventually ate all food in sight, and now I have this awful stomach-ache that I’ll choose to blame on those Au Bon Pain cookies. At the same time, I really wish I had purchased that block of smoked Gouda…

In another unfortunate turn of events, I finally decided to read the MIT school newspaper after months of living in a purposeful oblivion to campus events. There, I learned that I could read the NYTimes’ op-eds through our library’s subscription and then I played catch-up with Kristof all night long. Now it’s late and I still have two papers to read about signalling pathways in cancer cells. Yet, somehow, I feel like all my catch-up is still not enough to fill the emptiness caused by TimesSelect, even knowing that by allowing myself this distraction, I’ve made my life more difficult.

So, in short, playing catch-up is bad. Don’t do it. Now, later, or ever. Do not deprive yourself because it just results in a horrible cycle of excess and guilt.