A Perfect Person for One Day

(Allen Butt)

First off, I didn’t understand the “instructions,” so I scrapped it. It seemed to me that the whole idea of the presentation was to go out and make my own experience, as opposed to living my daily routine and accepting what gets thrown my way. There were actually a few events this weekend that I thought would qualify as an “experience,” but they were pre-planned, so it somewhat defeated the purpose (I spent Saturday with my fiancé in St. George, and I got baptized on Sunday).

After some brainstorming, I thought back to my freshman days in college. With the mindset of “this is the time and place to define what kind of person I want to be” in my head, I wrote up a list items that I should do every day. Though I’ve managed to lose the list since then, I was able to remember enough of them to re-create it somewhat:

1. Get up at 5:00
2. Daily devotional
3. Eat three healthy meals
4. Shower
5. Clean room
6. Practice instrument
7. Read
8. Finish all homework due the next day
9. Exercise
10. Drink lots of water
11. Make all appointments on time
12. Make coffee

They are generally pretty mundane and simple, but I felt the perfect human being would accomplish each and every one each and every day. So, I kept track of which ones I completed, and set goals for myself, but I actually never managed to finish the list on any one given day.

Well, I thought this might be the opportunity I was waiting for. I decided to make Monday the day where I would finally complete the list. It started at 6:00 in the morning (5:00 is unrealistic for me nowadays), and the first thing I did was read the Bible and pray. Then I set out to do all the chores on the list, most of them cleaning-related. As opposed to the tiny cell-room sized box I lived in my freshman year, I now live in a good-sized house with my brother, so the basic chores were much larger in scale. However, they were accomplished within a reasonable amount of time. What was incredible, though, was how early I finished. Getting up early just gives a person so much more time—it’d been over a year since I gave up on being a morning person, and I had already forgotten this basic sensation.

After eating breakfast and cleaning the dishes, I left for my first class at 9:00—programming. After the class, I decided, since this was a “take the initiative” sort of day, to converse with the professor about the subject material. I’ve noticed it is always a rewarding experience to do so.

After class, I met with my fiancé and we studied our respective material together. I worked on my accounting homework first, and I actually tried hard to get the questions right this time (I find it difficult to put forth 100% effort when the homework is not graded for accuracy). It went well, but what I noticed was that actually working for hours straight without getting distracted, searching the web, or losing focus, was a calming experience. It made me think to the stereotypical nine-to-fivers, or my own father who works practically all day. Before, I used to think that performing a mundane task for the majority of each day would drive me crazy, but now I can’t help but feel the opposite.

Before my next class started, I made some coffee, but was shocked to find that my brother had already devoured the rest of our milk. I decided to take a gamble and attempted to drink my coffee black, and was not surprised in the least when it tasted like liquefied charcoal *shudder*. I managed to conquer about half of it before I decided to throw in the towel.

After the next round of classes, I thought about the goal, or the significance of the day. I was trying, by following this old list, to be the perfect person; to be a hard-worker, an ambitious and a caring person throughout an entire day without stopping for whatever reason. And it was going well, but I couldn’t help but think that simply following the list wasn’t enough. I should do something a little more special than chores, right? So, I stopped by the florist on my way back to my house and bought a flower for my fiancé. After all, shouldn’t the perfect guy do something sweet for his girlfriend?

It was actually quite fun—I felt the same nervousness and excitement that I used to when we first started seeing each other. And she was very receptive to the flower, of course (what girl doesn’t love getting a rose?).

As the evening came, I wrapped up the rest of the items on the list like practicing my instrument and having a good dinner. Strangely enough, though, my reward for my constant concentration was mostly just a headache. No feeling of euphoria, or even any sense of real accomplishment. Maybe because in the end, everything I did was everything I should have done. Though it wasn’t by any means an adventure, it was definitely an experience to attempt to be a perfect person for one day. Now, I’m exhausted.