"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past"

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”

To quote a song from the famous musical Rent, “How do you measure a year?” Well, we did away with the boring measurements such as sunsets, midnights, inches (which doesn’t even make sense), and cups of coffee. Instead, Writer Joanna Zhang simplified 10 years into the units any Columbia student would understand.

Basic calculations:

10 years = 2 leap years (366 days) + 8 regular years (365 days) = 366 X 2 + 365 X 8 = 3652 days = 3652 X 24 = 87648 hours = 87648 X 60 = 5258880 minutes

10 years is thus equivalent to…

  • Taking 43824 Art of Engineering classes if each class is 2 hours
  • Ordering 1752960 bubble teas from East Cafe if each order takes 3 minutes
  • Riding the John Jay elevator 525888 times if each ride takes 10 minutes
  • Waiting 262944 times for the Hamilton elevator if each wait is 20 minutes
  • Getting 350592 pastas at Ferris if each line + pasta takes 15 minutes
  • Living through 2435 Blizzard Jonases assuming it lasted for 1.5 days
  • Going on 730.4 Spring Breaks if each break lasts 5 days
  • Experiencing 913 rounds of sorority recruitment if each round takes 4 days
  • Going to 87648 Bwog meetings if each lasts an hour
  • Walking up the Low steps 5258880 times if it only takes a minute since we are all busy people
  • Going on 1826 Fall Breaks if each break lasts 2 days
  • Taking 47808 LitHum classes if each class is an hour and 50 minutes
  • Seeing the Columbia football team win 4 times
  • Completing 350592 LLC applications if each takes 15 minutes
  • Successfully finding 175296 seats in Butler if it takes 30 minutes each time
  • Watching Miley Cyrus’ entire career unfold, bubble, and burst before your eyes
  • Listening to Lady Gaga’s entire discography 21,900 times
  • Tearing down and rebuilding approximately 2.2 Barnard libraries
  • Reading 84,950 spec op-eds
  • Seeing 8 sororities and fraternities come and go from Columbia