third year baily reese

Like J. Alfred Prufrock, I measure my life out in anything but numbers, coffee spoons, perhaps? 24 hours can have up to 24 metrics, counting through my life in objects, tastes, and times. When you’re not a number(s) type of person, there’s no attachment to the order and clarity they provide. Ambiguity and undefined boundaries through time work just fine.

44 -> How many songs it takes me to get home: instead of staring at the ETA, I’ll calculate approximately how many songs are left in my commute. Panicking because the time is ticking down and I don’t know whether i’m in the mood to sob, belt, or vibe with acoustics. Is it enough to get through an entire Broadway soundtrack, or maybe a quick shuffle through a maximum of 4 songs?

35 -> How many pages I have before I finish a chapter of the book I'm reading right before bed: If it’s more than 35, it might be a stretch. I can’t lie; I always preemptively go through the book and see how long chapters are so I can plan my sleep schedule accordingly.

3 -> The ounces of coffee or other varied beverages in my day: If it’s more than a 3 cup day, I know I'm going through it. Or distracted enough to power through coffee and ignore anything else that’s happening. Zoom screen after zoom screen consuming my life.

20 -> The amount of time I have to take my phone out of my pocket to correctly calculate a 20% tip: It’s not even that I can’t manually do math, I just don’t trust myself enough to get the accurate answer: similar to always distrusting my brain in the realm of calculation.

8 -> BUT when it comes to calculation- the one thing I’m good at is figuring out how long it will take me to write an essay (normally while racing against the clock): 8 hours is better than 4, but if it’s more than 8 it won’t be getting started until it reaches that critical hour. Persisting always is the stress in backtracking how much time you have to write a magnificent piece - while competing against father time.

5 -> On the theme of backtracking time- counting backward, I am especially good at it because counting forward does not reveal the same window. When you have a morning class, and you have to be awake and online at a certain time, backtracking the hours of sleep tells you more than a number- it’s a “you’re kind of going to regret this” vibe, or “you only have 5 extra minutes to lay in bed before you have to rush and go find parking on campus”.

15-> There’s a limited number of months left in my undergraduate college experience, a chapter of my life counting down before my eyes. A number circling close to the drain, decreasing every day. This countdown isn’t as taxing as how many hours I have left in a due date or the ETA of a drive but heavier in the release. Instead of the ambiguity in the crunchtime, being experienced in navigating the unknown works well under the pressure of this timer

An Ode to Prufrock: Homemade Metrics