During a leisurely Saturday drive through Woodland I passed a group of men playing Frisbee golf. They all had bags packed with Frisbees in tow, and tossed them with carefully practiced accuracy. A few of them sported silver locks and a few had more youthful coloring. Diverse in age but not in their goals, these men were enjoying their time away from work, school, and responsibility. Maybe they’re practicing for a tournament in San Francisco or maybe they play every weekend against each other. Leaving the duties of life for an afternoon or hopefully a whole weekend is common.
Americans live to work. Children are encouraged to follow their passion, and to be what they want be it artist, musician, or doctor. However, when it comes to choosing a college, classes, and a major counselor and parents push students into ones that guarantee high-salary positions. In high school my councilor shoved me into advanced placement classes, and miserable college prep classes. My high school years were filled with nightly homework, a full schedule, and a miniscule social life all to get into a good four-year college. Upon graduation I signed up with the local four-year college and started more grueling work that fall. The pushy councilors thought they were being encouraging, but all too late I found out a four-year wasn’t in my budget or my liking. I didn’t want to struggle unhappy and poor through college. I had no time to relax and have fun in my high school career, and less during my time at the University. Even my weekends were high stress, filled with chapters to read and papers to write. I’ve finally found a schedule that leaves my weekends free to discover myself and be who I want and do what I want with no pre-determined expectations.
My uncle, Kurt, began his college career as a forestry major hoping to become a park ranger. That way he could be in state parks, camping for a job, not just a weekend activity. Soon after starting classes, he chose a business major and pushed his enjoyment for the outdoors to the side. Now he works during the week and spends his weekends on bike races, camping, or exploring foreign country sides. Though his job isn’t his passion, it affords him many luxuries: owning his home, new cars, the latest electronics and, most importantly, free weekends.
Kurt knows boredom is for the unimaginative. The precious few hours between clocking out and clocking in shouldn’t be spent melted into a couch watching whatever mind-numbing swill corporate America has decided to pump through the veins of the working class. When America isn’t a zombie to TV, it’s a nation of weekend warriors.
We battle for our identity, for a sense of self, and for what we wish life was. Only a handful of people get paid to snowboard every day for the X-games, do wildlife photography for National Geographic, or play an instrument.
After a youth filled with pressure to buy the latest, newest, fastest gadget, car, or house, adulthood is filled with the effort of actually buying it. With a nine-to-five job there is little time for fun or enjoyment. Our battle for fame and glory leaves us to battle for our happiness on our off hours. For those of us lucky enough to have two days off next to each other, we find our enjoyment on the weekends.
In a society that encourages only work for money, the middle class can only show their true passions on the weekends. One of my co-workers, Vicki, spends her week as an insurance agent processing paperwork and dealing with angry clients on the phone. On the weekends she’s using words like “knave” and wearing corsets and petticoats. Vicki is active in the renaissance reenactment culture. She has no shortage of hobbies to escape the monotony of her work week including renaissance dancing, karate, sewing clothes, and role playing games.
Not everyone can be a surgeon or oil company executive. Someone has to clean the windows, fix the dryer, make the pizza, and sell us the cars we think we need. After trudging through endless hours of work, doing something monotonous, dealing with people who think they could do your job better, the battle for happiness and freedom on the weekend is all that keeps a person sane.
My job is dull, my coworkers are lazy and sloppy, my boss is a mental case, I’m underappreciated and under paid, and the customers can’t ever admit they’re wrong or ignorant. I don’t get paid on commission, why would I lie to them? On top of that I am a full time college student with tests, essays, lectures, papers, and reading. After work and school I volunteer as a high school track and field coach, where I have to set an example and keep my composure. I know many share this life with me. I’m one of many working, volunteering, students. My weekends are the only times when I can have fun with no responsibility or obligation to anyone.
Weekend warriors are not at war with society or their neighbors or some distant nation. Weekend warriors are dueling with stress, with insanity, and with the corruption of the soul. In a world where dreams come true, every one would end up with a job or career they loved so much it wasn’t work. However, in the existence we call “reality,” there is guilt, pressure, clocks, and deadlines. Until clocks and pressure are escaped there is no calm, and without calm there is only stress and agitation.
The hope that the weekend is coming can carry me through a week. Friday afternoon I am eager to bust out of the shackles of obligation and into the welcoming arms of a relaxing weekend. When I can bike to nowhere in particular, live by the sun and moon, stop at the park and play Frisbee golf or go to a renaissance fair. Weekends aren’t set by a calendar or clock, they are times to do what moves you, days when you can find out what makes you happy and not what others expect of you, a time to test limits, and make appointments with yourself that you don’t have to keep.
At work and school I have to fit in or at the very least be acceptable. I have to be what someone else wants me to be, be what someone else expects of me. If I didn’t have my weekends I’d never be me.
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be brutal. this is for a grade. Stay away from nit-pickey wording, what do you think about the ideas? how the examples blend together, etc.
