Motivation: elusive for a student even in its definition

Webster's defines the word motivate as "to provide with a motive; actuate."

Well, this really tells me nothing. Would it be too much for Webster's to actually give the unmotivated slacker writers of the world some juicy, big-word-filled descriptions of terms they wish to write about in describing their sorry conditions? Better yet, when trying to find out what it means to have no "motivation" (after hearing it from every human you're close to - including your sweet old grandparents - you may begin to wonder), it would help if this great Webster fellow would actually list the word amongst the "over 60,000" he gives us. Really now, on the same page as the mysterious "motivation," we get words such as "motel" and "mother-in-law." Um, I'm sorry, but if you don't know what either of these words means (or, for some scary reason, can't spell them), you should probably be looking at a third grade phonics book, not a dictionary.

Chris Langrill Idiot Wind

That said, instead of listing "motivation" as an afterthought to "motivate," maybe this Webster jerk ("fellow" is too kind) can give the word its own definition when he releases his umpteenth, inadequate revision. He could even boast on the front cover, along with detailing how many new words he's discovered, that finally, for all desperately searching scrubs out there, a definition for motivation exists!

I'm sorry. This whole ranting thing is out of line. Just because I have no intelligent, polysyllabic way of describing my major failing as a 21-year-old, I have no right to darken the otherwise respected name of the Webster dictionary man.

While I may not know what it means to be motivated, I sure have an idea of what being unmotivated entails. Here's a brief laundry list of typically unmotivated actions, or inactions for the average student/writer:

1) Failing to find a definition for the word in your small paperback dictionary, you decide against walking the twenty-five feet over to your roommate's room, where a fat, leather-bound, Oxford dictionary lies unused.

2)You admire your Pearl Jam concert tickets and fantasize about the show for a good five minutes, while the flashing cursor on the computer screen begs you to write something.

3) In relation to No. 1, you rant about the incompetence of the poor Webster's author.

4) You consider it an accomplishment when you finish a term paper a whole hour and a half before it's due.

5) Convincing yourself, while the sun's soothing rays force your eyes closed, that you will get studying done by lying on your apartment's deck.

6) During your three years as a college student, when people ask you what you want to "do," you give some variation on the following statement: "Oh, well, I want to be a journalist, like, um, Mitch Albom."

7) Related to no. 6, you wait three years to contact someone at that newspaper place on Maynard you've told friends you plan on visiting "soon."

If you recognize any of these behaviors, or things similar to them, in yourself, then you too, by my estimates, are unmotivated. Then again, since I never actually found a definition for "motivation," who am I to tell people what being unmotivated means? Maybe I'm confusing unmotivatedness (don't look it up, it won't be there) with laziness anyway. I would check on the difference for you, but I'm too ... well, you get the picture.

- E-mail Chris Langrill at sircml@umich.edu.

05-11-98