The average American will live approximately 28,835 days, according to a viral video.
Imagine these days being represented by a pile of 28,835 Jelly Beans on the floor.
This is what one YouTube user, ZeFrank, did for his online video, “The Time You Have (In Jellybeans)” in June.
ZeFrank is the executive vice president of video at BuzzFeed and a pioneer in “vlogging.”
ZeFrank opens the video by piling Jelly Beans on the floor — 500 at a time — measured out to represent the average American’s lifespan.
The roughly two-minute video shows how quickly the Jelly Beans diminish from the pile, from the first 365 days of being alive to the average 8,477 days we will spend sleeping.
The thousands of days that the average American spends watching television, eating and sleeping is juxtaposed with the mere 564 days we will spend caring for our family and friends.
As the video nears its end, 2,740 Jelly Beans remain unaccounted for.
These Jelly Beans remain after all necessary tasks have been finished.
Many students are nearing graduation next spring and are just about to enter the 3,202 Jelly Beans jellybean days that they will spend working in the professional world.
The graduating students who have yet to find a job are placed in a new pile of Jelly Beans, whether it be the Jelly Bean pile of sleeping and errands or a pile of community obligations.
As winter break looms, those of us still unemployed and not attending winter session could put our free 2,740 Jelly Bean days into use.
Rather than tossing the 2,740 Jelly Bean days aside and stressing about an unknown future, students should try to make every Jelly Bean count.
The biggest tragedy in our 20s would be throwing our Jelly Beans away by worrying about external variables outside of our control.
These external variables change from person to person but can include financial hardship or not having a job.
ZeFrank’s video shows that Jelly Beans should not be wasted. The days full of inactive, unproductive thoughts result in wasted Jelly Beans.
These are the days when we feel sad, overwhelmed and stressed. These days are not included in the video and for good reason.
The Jelly Beans that are left over at the end of the day, outside of the everyday obligations that erode the time we have left, can become the Jelly Beans that create a whole new amount of free time.
Say 100 of the 2,740 Jelly Bean days will be used to learn a new trade or skill. Those 100 Jelly Beans will affect the rest of the Jelly Beans from that point on.
Each Jelly Bean will carry a little more weight because you, the Jelly Bean holder, can put more emphasis on each Jelly Bean.
As college students lost in the stress of the unknown in our 20s, we may forget how valuable each Jelly Bean is.
While being 20-somethings, hundreds of the 2,740 of the unaccounted Jelly Beans can become the basis for how we use the rest of our Jelly Beans after graduation.
If you had one more day or Jelly Bean, how would you use it?
Joann Row is a senior journalism major and an assistant news editor at the Daily 49er.