As Long as a Piece of String
When I was in high school, one of my English teachers was asked a question every teacher has probably heard a hundred times.
She was an elderly, gray-haired grandmother.
“How long does this essay have to be?”
Without missing a beat, she answered:
“As long as a piece of string.”
We all looked at her blankly.
Finally someone asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She smiled.
“Long enough to get the job done.”
Years later, while I was home visiting my parents, our next-door neighbor, Mr. Mack, spotted me outside.
“Girl,” he hollered across the yard, “what have you been doing with yourself?”
“I’m in school.”
He looked stunned.
“School? How long you been in school?”
I started doing the math.
One year in kindergarten.
Five years in elementary school.
Three years in middle school.
Four years in high school.
A bachelor’s degree.
A master’s degree.
And at that moment I was two years into my Ph.D. in computer science.
“Twenty-one years,” I answered tentatively.
He stared at me for a moment before asking, in stunned disbelief,
“Girl… aren’t you educated enough?”
I laughed.
“Well,” I laughed, “that depends on what you want to do.”
How much is enough?
How much education?
How much money?
How much success?
How much preparation?
How much certainty?
We spend a surprising amount of our lives asking questions like these, hoping someone can give us a number.
The trouble is, there usually isn’t one.
The answer depends on the purpose.
An essay should be as long as a piece of string; long enough to get the job done.
Education should last exactly as long as it needs to prepare you for the work you’re called to do.
Sometimes that’s twelve years.
Sometimes it’s twenty-one.
Sometimes the most important education happens after you’ve left school entirely.
We want universal answers; life keeps giving us contextual ones.
How patient should I be?
Long enough to love well.
How much courage do I need?
Enough to take the next step.
How much money is enough?
Enough that it serves your life instead of becoming your life.
I find myself now thinking less about finding the right number and more about understanding the purpose.
The question isn’t, “How much?”
The question is, “What is this for?”
Once you know that, the answer often becomes surprisingly clear.
After all, some things should be exactly as long as a piece of string.
Long enough to get the job done.