Even if we never break into the top three in the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, we can all agree that the education we attain here is comparable to schools like Amherst, Swarthmore, Williams, and all the rest. What sets Pomona apart from everyone else? Simple: we’re more laid back. But how laid back are we when everyone here frantically struggles to do it all? it might be time to ask ourselves whether we’re working too hard.

None of us came to Pomona to slack off. We arrived here ready to excel academically, and throughout our years the best academic experiences here happen when we encounter the rare professor who demands a lot of our time but who makes the subject matter truly come alive. When that happens, heavy reading and off-campus field trips enrich our education. In cases like these, we have no reason to complain.

Not all of our classes go that way, however, and those are the times when students are so overburdened with homework, jobs, and extra-curricular activities that it becomes almost unhealthy. When four professors expect you to devote ten or more hours a week on homework, and you already spend that same amount of time in the classrom, there’s a surprisingly small amount of time left for fun.

Many students choose to engage in a variety of extra-curricular activities, such as sports. Playing for a Pomona-Pitzer varsity sports team requires a tremendous amount of dedication, at least15 hours or more of practice and game time. Other activities also come with heavy time committments. Having a high position in many of Pomona’s organizations, demands at least that much time. For organizations like KSPC or The Student Life , students who devote large amounts of time don’t even get any cumulative credits for all their work. like they do at other schools.

Then, of course, comes the wonderful world of work-study jobs. While a few lucky students have those fabled jobs where they just sleep, most of us have jobs with a fair amount of responsibility. Sometimes our bosses are understanding, and they’ll let us have the day off to finish a paper, or they’ll let us study if there’s not too much work to be done. For a large majority of us, though, our jobs entail us to spend another 10 or 12 hours a week earning money.

We can all agree then, that Pomona students don’t have a whole lot of time to just relax. Why does that matter?

We need to put things in perpective and realize that this is college. Yes, we’re here to study and to join all the clubs that interest us. But we shouldn’t rush along from classes to meetings to practices without occasionally stopping to catch our breath; even if means that the reading for tomorrow’s class won’t be done, sometimes we need to sit around with our friends and enjoy wasting all of those precious, precious hours.