I realized today that when you see people on the street, you wave, you say “hi”, they respond in kind. When starting a conversation however, usually the phrase used is “How are you?” I’ve realized more and more, when you’re talking to college students, what you generally hear is “I’m alright, kinda tired”. This is so frequent in fact, that it’s become normal.
College students should be used to being tired, it’s their normal state. Most people presumably base their answers to “How are you?” on some percieved normal state, that they can then be ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than. It’s a reference point. Being tired is the college students reference point. It makes things easier, and it doesn’t lead to the overuse of the phrase “I’m tired”. Using a different reference point would, thereby de-valuing the phrase.
So really, all you college students out there, just accept that ‘tired’ is your natural state, and there’s not really a way to change that. Although, I suppose ‘hungry’ is also a valid natural state. Either way, use one of the two as a reference point, and base everything else from there. It’ll make things easier for everyone.
-JTS
baha, I love this blog.
SO TRUE.
You should practice what you preach.