Time waits for no man.

This is a concept that is increasingly prevalent in our society. Time marches on, no matter what we do. No matter how painful or joyful our lives seem to be, time in its immovable indifference continues.

The main lesson that we draw from this is simple: every moment is sacred. Thus, we come to the conclusion that we need to be careful in planning our time and try not to waste any of it. What's the point in wasting time if every moment could be our last? And so we become paranoid planners and schizophrenic schedulers, making sure that no second be wasted. No moment undervalued. No minute useless. After all, if time waits for no man, then what are we waiting for?

However, I think that there is something that we as a society have failed to consider: what do we gain from wasting time?

What value does it have? What's the purpose of throwing seconds away?

What activities do we consider time-wasters that have more value than the time they take away?

I've thought about this before when I've procrastinated on an assignment or a chore and have found myself rushing to finish it.

I've thought of this when I genuinely don't know what I have planned in store for the week, so when someone asks me, "What are you doing later in the week?" I respond, "I have no earthly idea."

The question that always seems to pop into my mind when I have thoroughly wasted time for no good discernible reason and have started feeling guilty about it is, "What have I done wrong?"

Realize here that I'm not condoning blowing off doing important tasks in favor of wasting time. What I'm trying to say here is this: is the value of time intrinsic, or a social construct?

I'm inclined to believe it is a mixture of the two.

What do we gain when we do something that, from a logical perspective, has wasted our time? Many times, we gain enjoyment. Is playing video games, watching movies, reading books, or messing around on the Internet accomplishing a monetary or value-related task?

Often times, not really.

And yet most of us still do all these things in the name of entertainment. We want to enjoy ourselves in this cold and unforgiving life. So we turn to these activities which occupy our brain-space in the most basic sense, because we find it fun.

So, to sum up what I'm trying to say here: wasting time proves that time is as valuable as we think it is.

Because when we purposefully choose to waste time, what we are saying through our actions is, "I find time valuable enough to use it for seemingly meaningless purposes. I am willing to use what precious minutes I have on dumb things with no intrinsic benefit."

By saying that, we're saying that if there is enough time to waste, there is also enough time accomplish great things.

Without acknowledging this, we really are incomplete as human beings. If we become too task-oriented, then we are saying that we don't have enough time for anything at all because these tasks HAVE to be done and we have no time to do them.

To conclude, people of the world, I say this: waste time.

Waste time because time is precious and valuable, and if we can waste time, then we can accomplish great things with our time. It seemingly makes no sense, and yet when we realize that the things we choose to do that waste our time give us an opportunity to enjoy our time, it kind of does.

Waste time, everyone. Because as human beings, we need it.