Nicole Robinson

In an ideal world, everyone would read a newspaper everyday. In an ideal world, everyone would take time to do further research on important topics facing society, including the war in Iraq, the rising cost of oil or government corruption.

In an ideal world, we’d all mail in our yogurt tops to help fund breast cancer research, save every pop tab for the Ronald McDonald House and correctly separate our recyclables.

In an ideal world, we’d all eat only nutritious, home-cooked meals, spend hours of quality time with our families and still manage to look cover-model perfect by 7 a.m. everyday.

In reality, most of us are lucky to make it through another day with enough time and money to pay our bills, do our jobs and still find some scraps of time for the people we love.

There are only 24 hours in a day, and sometimes it’s simply too hard to find time to stay informed, much less maintain high levels of concern for every issue that crops up.

And yet it seems as college students, we’re peer-pressured nearly everyday to research more, volunteer, protest, raise money or raise awareness by a small minority of students, faculty and staff.

This isn’t to say people shouldn’t care, try to do their part to make the world better or strive to live healthy lives. However, to expect anyone to stay constantly “tuned in” to a wide range of concerns is unrealistic.

I think I speak for more than myself when I say I’m going to explode if one more person tells me to “wake up.”

Damnit, I’m tired.

I got engaged last week, which means thinking about throwing a wedding (or not). I’m frantically searching for a job. I have finals to study for. I’m graduating. I’m moving half-way across the country in a month and a half. I have to go Christmas shopping. I have to work.

In my spare time, I like to sleep.

And, in comparing notes with friends, my load is pretty light.

Most people have these burdens and many, many more.

We have so many stressors in our lives that we all need downtime. For some, that might mean taking a four-hour nap. For someone else, it may mean reading a novel. For me, it’s catching up on an hour or two of TV every few days and spending time with my family and friends.

So often we hear about “the apathetic college student.” Maybe so. But what’s not discussed in the same breath is how busy the average college student really is. As a whole, it sometimes seems like we’re looked at as a group as 20-somethings who do little but hibernate year-round, drink incessantly and stare mindlessly into the good ol’ boob tube watching shows like Laguna Beach.

A lot of us do take long naps, tip back a few and secretly watch reality TV.

So what.

A lot of us also do our part in small doses to make the world a better place. We volunteer with a single organizations that hold special places in our hearts. We give donations to groups that champion one or two causes that we’re passionate about. We read the headlines or try to catch a few minutes of CNN Headline News.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by the former UW-Eau Claire Women’s basketball coach Lisa Stone, at a women in sports media conference. Stone now works as the Div. I coach for UW-Madison, and juggles many roles not only within her job, but also balancing her work life with her home life. As far as I can tell, she’s one of the busiest, most accomplished women I know of. She’s a huge role-model for many people, including myself.

Stone talked about this juggling act in her presentation, filling us all in on how she manages to keep all the balls in the air.

Most of the balls are rubber, she told us. They’ll bounce if you drop one once in a while. But your family and friends represent a glass ball, that if dropped, may never be the same. She spoke with the authority of someone who’s been there, of someone who’s dropped a “rubber ball” or two.

There’s nothing wrong with dropping a few balls from time-to-time to make room for the ones that are important. Eventually, we all find time to eat a balanced meal, make sure the empty milk gallon makes it to the recycling bin and get a better handle on the day’s events. But they’re the rubber balls.

When my day is done of work, school and household chores, I for one, am going to spend some much-needed quality time with my fianc‚. I’m probably going to have a beer while I do it. We’ll probably stare at the boob tube once in a while.

My relationship isn’t a matter of global, national or even local concern. But it’s my glass ball.

And I’m not feeling guilty about it.

MacLaughlin is a senior print journalism major and editorial editor of The Spectator. Mac Mouths Off is a weekly column that appears every Thursday.