Sara Warzecka Columnist

Life is one big set of trade-offs. Do you spend the big bucks when you have the opportunity to buy Wildcat basketball tickets even though it means having to work a few extra shifts at work so you can make the rent? Well, maybe that one is a little too obvious. You have to take the basketball tickets no matter what the cost. But hopefully you get my point. College is too busy, and it's not always a matter of how you spend your money but how you spend your time. Is it more worthwhile to get ahead of schedule by taking an extra class or two for your major, or should you take that psychology or astronomy class you've heard great things about?

Everyone faces the tough choices. Study abroad or participate in activities on campus? Spend spring break in Cancun or spend time with your family whom you haven't seen in several months? Which options will most enrich your life? A lot of decisions may have to do with what you will or won't be able to fit into the future. Most of us will be working full time for the rest of our lives. Will there be time or money to visit Italy when you are thirty? Should you join the PeaceCorps before going to grad school? When will you ever want to start a family? Why does everything have to be so complicated? Should you have packed an extra string cheese for lunch? Should it be an snack pack tomorrow?

I'd love to say there's enough time in life for everything but I don't think it's true. This is why I propose a government sponsored automated scheduling system. I don't know how to make any of the important choices so I'd rather have a computer do it for me. Simply input all the options for the rest of the day, the week, the year, or your life and an automatic planning tool will tell you what to do. In fact, the program will include options you've never even thought of. For example: naked bungee jumping, naked cooking classes, streaking, or even naked Zamboni riding. Okay maybe the program just took it a little too far but add those to your list of things to do before you die anyway.

It would be so efficient at scheduling your life, you wouldn't even have to worry about missing out on any of the things you said you always wanted to do. Never mind that this may mean you'll have to climb Everest when you are seventy-two. Old people really are becoming more and more active these days. Would you prefer to be put in a home or sent out to go fishing in the Arctic... naked? A home! No way, that is just lame! Tucsonans and their fear of cold-weather shrinkage... tsk tsk.

A big part of moving out into this "real world" business is learning to make decisions, without the help of artificial intelligence (yes you might as well put your mother in that category). As a personal preference, I'd rather sleep through it all anyway.

When it comes to choosing partying or hanging out over shut eye, people always tell me I can sleep when I'm dead. Well I don't want to be dead. And when I am I don't want to sleep either. I always vowed to be a zombie, damn it! I have a list of fleshy arms to bite. There is no escaping the wrath of the living dead.

So what if I am wasting my time and my life. Waste away I say!

Sometimes we have to sacrifice one desire for another. In the end, it's best to say you lived your life and you don't regret any of it. Even if it means taking summer classes, go ahead and take the courses that have nothing to do with your major but stimulate you intellectually. Take a semester off to go travel in Europe or volunteer at a clinic in Nicaragua. Take a break before giving your life away to anything or anyone. For many, life after college will be so full of monotonous work that it's important to do as much now as you possibly can, even if it means missing out on some sleep.

Sara Warzecka apologizes for a severe case of writer's block that seems to have started at birth and will only end with zombification. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.