You could be doing anything right now. You might be preparing for your biology exam tomorrow morning. You could change the conclusion of your article to English. You may want to review your manager's quarterly report. Or you might be lying comfortably on your living room couch, catching up on Andrew Lincoln's zombie hordes, blissfully, mindlessly. (Go Rick, go…) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay But you're not. Instead, contrary to the flow and demands of the day, you find yourself reading “Providing Community Service, Despite a Busy Schedule.” Truly? How about “Living LIFE, despite a busy schedule”? I hear you, I understand. Not only are you torn between a test and a paper, a lecture and a TV series, but you are randomly confronted with the topic of "community service" which, at least initially, has no discernible meaning to your life or immediate well-being . But let's say we find the motivation to do even just a little bit of community service. What benefits would we derive from it, despite our commitments? Most young adults – and most likely you too – who balk at the prospect of doing community service typically do so because they are busy. They (and you) might say, “I have things to do!” or “I will fall behind in school and work!” And those are perfectly valid feelings. I, for example, am enrolled in fifteen credits at Brigham Young University. I am also a writing tutor for the University, usually putting in ten hours a week. I am also serving as a volunteer “elders quorum president” at my church, where, among many other things, I lead and facilitate religious services and instruction for approximately forty men each Sunday. Also, I eat food, try to get adequate sleep every night, and try to socialize (if you can call it that). Does this sound familiar? So where and why should community service fit into all this? Well, despite how busy we are, doing community service can actually help us in our efforts; it can help us plan our time more effectively. Recently, a brilliant team of researchers set out to explore the effects of community service on adolescent development (and how post-service reflection helps that development). In conclusion, they found that “[providing] community service…has positive effects on the way adolescents behave and think about school, themselves, others, and society,” including time management (Van Goethem et al. 2128). So if doing community service can lead to, among other things, better time management, then perhaps it would be helpful to at least try to confirm these experts' research for yourself. Just to see. Now, the question of commitments corresponds to its reverse: the question of free time. You might say, "Hey, I'm enjoying the free time I have!" And, as you might assume, so do I. Anything containing the word free is praiseworthy, but free time is something extraordinarily precious. But what do we really mean by “free time”? Not having things to do, not having urgent matters to take care of, sure. But what exactly is pleasant in the temporary absence of household chores? It's actually the tranquility we feel on an otherwise crowded and chaotic day; it's the relief our overworked minds feel in not having to continually juggle and analyze myriad tasks. So when we say we enjoy “free time”, we are actually saying we enjoy peace and relief –.)