Life Musings

I had a roommate back in grad school. He started graduate school in 1987, and he didn't finish until 2003. That's right--it took him 16 years to finish his master's and Ph.D. degrees. Sixteen long years. This is a horrible blemish on his resume, and while he did eventually find a job, he's going to have a very difficult time finding any other employment.

The problem was that he was a lazy bum. He would sit around the TV every night, wolfing down fries and getting fat. Whenever a paper was due, he would wait until the very last possible moment before attempting to write anything. He would go for weeks without ever stepping foot in the NASA lab that paid his grant money.

He even insisted that when he lands a job, he will refuse to work more than eight hours a day. Now, a secretary or a union worker might get away with that nonsense, but not a highly trained professional. No, if you're an engineer or a programmer, you had better be prepared to put in extra hours as necessary!

He would periodically take an entire day off in order to do laundry. He would also take a day off "in order to relieve stress." At one point, being tired of his excuses, I said, "Mark, if you want to relieve the stress in your life, then get some bloody work done!!!" He was stressed because of all the work that was piling up on his desk, and yet he chose to watch TV instead of deciding to make a dent in that work.

I feel bad for him, but only up to a point. He chose that life for himself, and I warned him repeatedly along the way. Now he's got to live with the consequences of years of laziness.