I can see both sides.

As I'm watching Two Million Minutes, and reading the articles-- mostly "For Once Blame the Students"-- the instinctive part of me want to be like "WELL, SCREW YOU TOO!"

But, of course, that would be a little irrational.

While I want to get mad, and think "That's just a generalization. It doesn't apply to me," I  realize it actually does. I mean, I'm terrible at focusing. I always promise myself I'll work really hard on homework during the weekend and spend a lot of time understanding it, but every time I make that promise to myself, it ends up being a complete and utter failure. For example:

Things I've already done this weekend:
- Catch up on the most recent episodes of Castle and Glee. Ok, and Modern Family.
- Spend too much time on Facebook and Tumblr.
- Go to a hip-hop class.
- Volunteer at/ watch part of the girls varsity soccer game.

Things I have planned to still do this weekend:
- Hang out with my friend/go to a haunted house
- Possibly go to a bonfire
- Reherse for 7 hours for the Marching Band Orlando trip (This was not a choice, may I just say)
- Pack for Orlando

And of course, I'll try to fit as much homework into there as possible. That's how it usually goes for me. Plan all of the fun stuff I'm going to do, and assume my homework will magically get done inbetween it all.

It's not a very good system.

And I wish I could say that I'm the only one who's doing this, but I know I'm not. Most of my friends have the exact same strategy. Some of them do the same thing, but still manage to get all their homework done, study, and get A's on everything. I call these people freaks of nature, because it doesn't seem humanly possible to do everything they do. (I suppose I should really call them "Super People" in accordance with my rhetorical analysis article.) Aside from these people, most of us are just procrastinating like pros, and finding average ways to scramble along, but not really giving it our all.

So, in regards to studying and focus, yea, India and China beat us any day. But, based on the documentary, they didn't seem to do a whole lot aside from that. I know the video couldn't show us what they did every day, so maybe we didn't get to see some of the other fun activities they did (or maybe that was purposeful), but they were so focused on studying and maybe singing, ballet, soccer and violin, that they didn't have any time to just LIVE. I'm sure if you ask any kid in our school what they did over the weekend, probably 90% of them went out and did something, whether it was going to a sporting event with friends (I heard Wayzata won the football game!), taking a dance class (Brigadoon hip-hop, maybe?) or just relaxing with their friends or family.

So as important as studying is, sometimes I just want to live and enjoy life. I know their is a time to focus, and screwing around can only happen in moderation, but just look outside right now. Would a stroll be worth the 15 minutes of time you take away from homework?