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| Aaron Holder |
By Aaron Holder, Class of 2017
Spring Break. The words strike fear into the hearts of mothers, fathers, and grandparents; the words ooze with vice and gritty, sandy filth. I had no desire to take part in the debauchery that inevitably occurs over break. I’d always thought myself to be of a different cut of cloth—someone that doesn’t use an entire week to physically wreck themselves. As I sat in my room on the afternoon of March 7th, my only intentions for spring break were to camp, and maybe go home for a couple of days. As I listened to Obi-Wan tell Luke, “trust your feelings” for the third time that week, a fraternity brother asked if I just wanted to come along to Panama City Beach. I hadn’t given the idea much thought, but—much like Luke—I trusted my feelings, and within five minutes my plans for the week had changed drastically.
For my sake, I won’t go too far into detail about that week’s proceedings. It was an absolute blast, to say the least, but it was also a very enlightening experience. Panama, ironically, reminded me of how to live, and also illustrated a concept I believe to be central to being human: being content.
One thing that I did without in a week of excess was money; I’m a college student, therefore I am poor. Going without things we consider to be necessities—three square meals a day, groceries, etc.—reminded me of what was really important. In today’s world, more and more emphasis is placed on how many figures your income has in it, or how many houses/cars/superficial stuff you have. I believe that this is because, as Americans, we are taught to never settle. In other words, the art of contentment is a dying one.
It’s easy to see how and why our culture is losing touch with the art of contentment. Students are told from an early age that an education is only a means to an end; scholastic achievement begets financial stability. Never feeling that one has done enough has bled into other aspects of society in such a way that we forget to—pardon the cliché—stop and smell the roses.
Aaron Holder, of Scottsville, Ky., is a freshman McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is studying political science.