Americans, including myself, love convenience. We are a nation obsessed with it, and anything that can be done to make life easier, we’ll make sure it’s done. While I love finding a close parking space and have gotten to the point that I can’t imagine life without a computer I also recognize that sometimes a little extra work is worth the effort.

The biggest complaint here at UTM is parking. True, there are more students than there are parking spaces but given a little time and effort most of us do find somewhere to park our cars and still manage to get to class. The problem is that we simply don’t want to walk the extra steps, be it here or the local mall. Parking always is a controversial issue, but really it’s just a matter of convenience.

This culture of convenience has infiltrated all areas of our daily lives. Americans are inundated with advertisements about the latest diet trends and hopes for that weight-loss miracle. Everyone is looking for that magic pill that will give them the perfect body yet circle the parking lot in their cars looking for the closest spot as they go to yoga class.

Every night there are infomercials dedicated to selling us abdominal machines that send electrical impulses to our muscles to give us that flat stomach. If only getting in shape were really that easy we’d all have great physiques and be able to run around baring our midriffs. Everyone is looking for the shortcut, the easiest, most convenient way to do something.

We use microwave ovens to cook our food quickly because we’re in a hurry and it’s easy. Now, even this sometimes isn’t quick enough. Bacon now comes prepackaged and precooked so that those of us who actually take the time to eat breakfast don’t have to put any effort into cooking at all. Instead of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ourselves we can buy them pre-made and packaged on our grocery store shelves. We can even buy bread without the crust so that we don’t have to put all that hard work into removing it. I suppose this saves some time but it’s also a little ridiculous. Have we become so lazy that we can’t even remove the crust from our bread?

We complain about doing the laundry as if we had to take it outside and wash it in the nearest stream. How difficult is it to put the clothes into a machine and turn it on? We have vacuum cleaners now that are totally automatic and will even put themselves away when they are done with the job.

As for cell phones, I both love them and hate them. We can reach virtually anyone at any time but we have also sacrificed genuine conversation for convenient small talk. Instead of sitting down and talking to a friend or getting to know someone we do it while we’re driving or, heaven forbid, watching a movie in a theater.

I’m just as guilty as the next person. How would I ever make it through school without a computer and the Internet? Computers are wonderfully convenient but they also promote laziness. We’ve lost the art of letter writing because e-mail is so quick and easy. We even send Christmas and birthday greetings this way instead of sending cards. Now when I get something that someone took the time to write and mail I feel very special. I also tend to forget that there was a time that I actually had to go to a library and look something up in an encyclopedia. And, believe it or not, I had to learn how to spell when I was growing up because there was no Spellcheck.

Convenience can be great but the next time you see something that looks so easy ask yourself at what cost it comes. We shouldn’t give up some of the best things in life in the name of progress.