The end of a week Essay Example for Free

The end of a week Essay Basically, weekend, as the term suggests, is the end of a week. More elaborately, it is suggest that certain period between the close of one working or school week and the beginning of the forthcoming week. To be more specific, weekend for me, is that two consecutive days that stretches from Friday night to Sunday evening where you can go out on a long trip or go on shopping or just bum around because there is neither work nor school. Before reading the essay â€Å"Weekend†, it wasn’t my idea that the word and the day designated as weekend evolved since I thought it was a universal, time-old designation to end a week and a fixed day on any year or generation. Upon reading the essay, I was amazed on the way the author believes a weekend should be like. Also, the essay made me wonder who designates the days to be considered as weekend and how the idea of creating your own weekend came about. Author Witold Rybczynski in the essay â€Å"Weekend† focused more on the origin of the modern weekend. His main idea on the essay is about the development of leisure in our lives and the idea of taking the time off from work or school. In delivering his main point in the essay, Ryzbczynski discussed briefly the evolution of the word weekend and develops his thought of having genuine time-off from work by pointing out how our present weekend is designated or scheduled by people themselves or even by the state through proclamation of holidays that creates long weekends. The creation of do-it yourself holiday, meaning scheduling your own holiday for a trip or for a family or other recreational activities, to his mind takes away the real idea or the traditional meaning of weekends which is founded more on leisure and doing nothing, aimless and being just idle. To cite an example of the author’s main idea of the development of the weekend, Rybczynski first illustrate how the word weekend changed over the years. At first, it was a two word connected by a hyphen, then it loses the hyphen and slowly becomes a sort of metaphor in greeting people to wish the other of an enjoyable rest days. Another example given by the author showing changes to what is now known as the weekend is his discussion on how Sunday, which is then the beginning of a week, became the last day thereof in order to accommodate our work and other activities. Lastly, he also mentions how people nowadays designate or create their own weekend living the traditional designated weekend behind. In designating and creating their own weekend, the author believes that the weekend has lost its meaning making the same as just like a regular work day that has the same conformity of all-in-a-days-work. In this generation where people are driven by their interest and needs at the same time, I believe that the whole idea of the author no longer applies. The essay, to my mind no longer have relevance as people of today’s generation find jobs that are fulfilling and somehow provides leisure while doing their work. The present set-up no longer depicts a situation where people hurry are doing work just for the sake of money but rather at present times, people work because they are driven by their interests, hobbies and even beliefs thus making one’s work no longer burdensome and thus, people no longer rush to their houses for the weekend just to lie down and be idle. Idling, in its literal sense, I believe is no longer possible inasmuch as modern technology like computers, internets, game consoles and the like will often finds its way in our schedule during weekends. With regard to the author’s idea of designating or creating your own long weekend, I believe that there is really nothing wrong with that. People have comfort zones and if a certain day is the most comfortable day for him to relax and consider his weekend, then let it be. Focusing more on the idea of relaxation, though not necessarily by idling, than the day of weekend is far better to suit the taste of today’s world. Reference Rybczynski, Witold. Waiting for the Weekend (1991), pp. 321.