For college kids, Christmas/Chanukah/Winter break is a time for relaxation.

Sure, you may work a couple hours a week at your old job for some present-buying cash flow but there are no papers, no projects, and no exams.

And if you’re anything like me, CCW break is a period where you have a lot of free time but feel like you deserve to not spend it doing something you have to.

Break is you time.

Do something you want to do. Read a book that has nothing to do with anything.

Did you never get around to the last Harry Potter book? Is there a new Star Wars book out? Is Gossip Girls your guilty pleasure?

Read it. Who cares?

You know I don’t.

Besides, I’ve read every HP book thrice, I know more Star Wars history then American history, and I knocked out all the Gossip Girls novels (yes, “novels”) three summers ago.

So instead of reading, last Saturday, four friends and I decided over dinner to devote our time to something arguably more worthless…

Starting a new weekly TV drama.

After much deliberation, we narrowed the field down to Lost and Heroes.

The voting was fierce:

We debated the pros and cons of each show, my friend Chris attempted a filibuster by eating only one fry every 5 minutes, and I had to give up shotgun in his car for a month to get him to reconsider.

When we finally voted, Heroes won and Lost well… you get the idea.

(Heroes – 3, Lost – 2)

So after dinner, we all went to Blockbuster and picked up the first season and Saturday at 11pm, we began the first episode.

Note:
I have a very addictive personality. I don’t believe in doing something half-way. I don’t even believe in doing something the whole way.

If you start something, you should do it to the extreme.

And at 6:30pm last night, three of us finished the first season.

I did some calculations and figured out that during those 43 hours, I’d spent…

22 hours watching Heroes, 14 hours sleeping, and 7 hours doing everything else.

I broke it down further below:

I told that story to a few people last night and each said, “Wow, what a waste.”

So I began to question my decision:
- Did I really need to watch a show until 7am two nights in a row? – No.

- Did I enjoy every second of the show? – No, I was horribly scared most of the time.

- Does my back hurt from sitting down for so many straight hours? – Yes.

- Do I see scenes from the TV show every time that I close my eyes? – Yes.

- Do I need to shower? – God Yes.

- What does waste really mean? – To consume or spend without adequate return.

- Oh, well did I get a decent story out of it? - Umm sure, why not.

Well then it’s not a waste.

A waste would be doing something that I wouldn’t remember a month from now or that I could easily do again in a year or two.

Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine anything more worthwhile…

…except maybe this.