Jeff Wang Blog

If you go to university away from home after high school, you will have spent ~85% of the days you will ever spend with their parents.

Up until you are 18, you spend nearly every day seeing your parents. Subtract a few days during high school where you might go on vacations or school program retreats, that’s roughly 6400 days.

Optimistically, my parents will live till they are 90, which means I’ll be about 60.

Since going off to university, I’ll be spending roughly 60 days every year now with my parents until I graduate, so that’s another 240 days.

Presumably, that drops to 20 days after I graduate and get a full-time job. So from the ages 22-60, (38 years), I’ll have 20*38 = 760 days.

In total, because I am 18 right now, I have roughly ~1000 days left to spend with my parents, roughly 3 years worth of time before I went off to university. That means I’ve spent 6400/7400 = 86.5% of my total days with my parents up till now.

I am now in my final stretch of ~15% of my time with my parents.

That time is dramatically even lower with my high school friends because I don’t see them every day when I come home.

I think it is important to reflect on how precious my remaining time is with my family and friends before I come home, because really, this time truly is precious, and I want to make sure I make the most out of it.

So to those who are also heading home after finals season is wrapping up, I hope you take some time to reflect on your final stretch of 15%.

Good Luck.