How we spend the first 10 years of our lives is for the most part decided by our parents. Only during our adolescent years do we begin to make our own choices regarding how we will spend our time. By the time we are 18 years old, how have we spent, or how will we have spent, these years?

Our time is our life, and as our time passes, so does our life. The average 18-year-old will have spent the 8 years from age 10 to age 18 in the following ways. Realizing that our schedules will only grow more full as we grow older, how do we want to spend our lives?

Translated into years, these percentages mean that we spend an accumulated two years, eight months of our adolescence asleep, one year, eight months for school-related activities, and about six months for eating. Amazingly, as much as three years, one month could be considered free time which we can spend as we choose. Once we spend them, they are gone forever. What is worth the remaining years, months, and days of our lives?

*Figures based upon a typical student schedule