[FP] Is life short?

Is life short?  Or is it the way we spend our lives that makes it seem short?

Throughout the later years in human existence, institutions and rules were established to maintain order, and guidelines for how to live a "respectable" conformist-if you will, life.  Kids in particular would obtain educations at multiple levels, maintain household chores, study hard, and follow the rules.  They then seek out jobs in the real world and ultimately work until retirement when mostly old people enjoy their later years in life with their kids and grand kids, trips to Europe or wherever, and reminisce about their lives.  Those who didn't follow the system correctly or successfully in a different avenue were forced into a type of living different than the average "American".

It has always made me wonder whether or not we are spending our time here on Earth, the way we should.  I mean, everyone's opinion differs, but if you think about it, there is so much to discover in this world of ours, and we spend....what?  maybe a little less than half of our lives in school?  If you think about that proportionately to 10 amazing experiences you would have in your life say, if you had a much longer time out of school and work, then your missing out on 4-5 experiences during your time in school/work.  I mean of course we definitely have a degree of freedom and fun in school and work, but who knows what we're missing out on during our countless hours on the computer doing reports, or studying some math concept that some 18th century Greek mathematician made up in his head the past.  I'm also tired of hearing about suicide rates in Korea or some other educationally/socially strict country, going up because kids didn't do well on tests (the big ones that would decide their future- similar to ones in US but more brutal and consequential). 

[warning, off topic:  We spend a considerable amounts of our time sitting, whether it be in class, at home, in a waiting room, studying in your room, etc.  I've come to realize that sitting, though practiced in the past with our past evolutionary "homos", has become a very overused "action".  It puts stress on your back, promotes bad posture, is bad for circulation and muscle function, and degrades your health in some circumstances.  It would be cool if I could invent a type of chair that is somewhat antigravity: it would incorporate the comfort and health benefits of laying down, while providing the support of sitting.  Oops, this actually might be bad considering the possiblity that given this healthy way of "sitting" people might be motivated to do it more often so....idk just an idea so far.]


Anyways, it makes me wonder about the possibilities we are missing out on as a human race, given the strict systems we have placed upon our societies.  What could 2 hours on the computer doing homework, amount to in 2 hours of actually enjoying the world around us, and not just the ideas people put into educational curriculum in the past.  I mean, of course its good to have knowledge of subjects like biology, basic math, literature, and various sciences, but when do we draw the line between learning and memorizing.  When do we learn for ourselves in the real world, rather than taking a seemingly more "intelligent" person's theory for granted.

Who knows?...maybe 80 years of what we percieve as "normal life" could seem more like 100 years if we loosened up our standards and strict living guidelines as a human race.  Maybe this is a better step forward...maybe.