Time, or rather the quantity of it, seems to determine every choice of our life. Be it the choice between focusing on your extracurriculars or spending time with family, turning in an assignment by the due date or asking for an extension, or even simply giving into the temptation to snooze your alarm clock before getting ready for school. Time feels like a cunning adversary that we always have to stay one step ahead of, lest it runs out and we are left behind. Thus, in an attempt to win in this race against time, we, as high schoolers, make strict regimens, detailed schedules, and overpopulate our reminders with phrases such as “turn it in!!” Even our supposedly restful breaks between our activities now get labels and times attached to them such as “be mindful of your breathing for the next thirty seconds” or “practice gratitude for the next five minutes”—but when do we just let time be or live in a moment that’s truly unplanned? In this article, three Opinions section writers—Colin Zhao, Jacob Park, and Cole Topping—contribute their own perspective on the importance of unstructured time.

Colin Zhao: As a child, my schedule was constantly filled. From karate to swimming to music to Chinese after school, my activities left me with little free time. There was a point when Saturdays mainly consisted of classes and driving around between them. This was when I first realized the importance of unstructured time—AKA the short breaks between activities. Unstructured time is the period of calm amidst the chaos of our busy lives. This is a time when our lives, decisions, and thoughts are controlled by ourselves, not by some activity or assignment. With all the emphasis on mental health today, unstructured time should undoubtedly be seen as a vital part of our lives.

Jacob Park: The entire genre of jazz revolves around improvisation. Much like talking, jazz improv is a string of ideas and phrases, the ultimate result of which you can never fully anticipate. It’s uncertainty turned into expression. Not knowing what comes next is fine. In fact, that’s how life is, anyway. You don’t plan to notice the clouds one day or plan to take the wrong exit or plan to fall in love with someone. There’s no need to condition yourself to expected actions and outcomes. Sometimes, it’s best to let the wind carry you––like Forrest Gump. Because unstructured time is simply uninterpreted inspiration.

Cole Topping: Great moments have always been continuous. The most prominent memories of our lives do not last because of their planned obedience to a schedule—they endure because they transcend it. However, Bay Area youth culture promotes the cutting up and skinning of time like it’s a common carrot. In a supposed meritocracy where everyone gets twenty-four hours in a day, the logic offers that whoever uses them best will rise to the top. But a youth that has enough time and resources to worry about conquering time, very clearly, has the ability to let time breathe. When the demands of our young lives already force us to spend a great amount of our time on rigorous work, the importance of guarding moments of nothing more than simply being cannot be overstated. Beyond taking five-minute breaks to catch your breath, find it within your schedule to let life move without the clicking beats of the second hand. You can feel something in yourself without understanding it, but you cannot understand yourself without proper feeling, so give yourself the unbounded time to breathe, then feel, then grow.