I'm not into pain

I'm not into pain. That may sound silly - most people aren't into pain, right? That's pretty much its purpose for existing, to tell us what not to do. But Reedies are some queer cats, and around senior year they start to get a little intense. At my last Symposium discussion we were talking about the rediscovery of Epicurean philosophy in the Renaissance and the practice of religious self-flagellation during the Middle Ages - and as a comparison, someone said "as Reedies, don't you think we're in pain much of the time?" Ermm... I try to avoid that. And then there's the little things, like the inconveniences people will put themselves into in order to spend all day in lab. I'm okay with taking an afternoon off from my thesis if I've got other shit to do. I've never really more than grazed the edges of "stress culture" before, but it's starting to pop up a lot lately.

 I know the general argument for pain being productive. "If you don't do hard things, you won't learn and grow." Eh, maybe a little, but that's far from a logically absolute statement. If you avoid hard things categorically, you'll miss out on a lot of opportunities for discovery. You have to do SOME hard things to open ALL your avenues of growth. But there are plenty of ways to build knowledge, skills, and experiences that don't seem hard and are often more efficient than the hard ways. Most importantly, the inverse is not true, which is where I think some "practical masochists" get turned around. The fact that an endeavor is difficult is NOT an indicator of its potential rewards. Don't assume straining yourself will bring good things unless you have an independent reason to believe so of the task at hand.

Not that I don't tolerate discomfort, inconvenience, or anxiety for the sake of learning - but there's got to be a balance. This is my life, man. I don't put myself through hell just for the promise of "I'LL FINISH WHAT I STARTED AND THE GREATER THE EFFORT THE SWEETER THE CROWN OF GLORY." Well, I did once, and y'know, the crown of glory in itself is overrated. It's the flowers and berries along the way that make it and if the crown's in the middle of a putrid swamp... pass.

That was Physics 200. That's what made all of this clear. It taught me to disvalue pain, not to think a challenge is worthy just because it's a challenge. And it cured any hyperexamination of my motives. I don't need to prove to anyone anymore that I'm not afraid of failure. I worked hard, succeeded (insofar as I got a good grade), and said "yeah that wasn't fun." I don't need to pursue arbitrary piles of successes and accomplishments if it's not going to be fun.

I dunno. Maybe this is just a long winded way of complaining that Reedies need to chill the fuck out. Nobody thinks it's a breeze, but I assume everyone who came here and stayed here is here because the pleasure is much more than the pain. Otherwise why would you do it? There are other fine and prestigious colleges with less homework and no thesis. The campus can't be populated by 1400 or even 700 tortured souls who simply believe suffering builds character. So what's the deal? Strange masochism or just people forgetting to put things in perspective?