天津阅读表达 Rx020・2025_06 阅读表达

In the morning, I write this to-do list: 1. Go to the bank. 2. Get a nice haircut. 3. Pick up my academic statement from college. 4. Submit my poems. I think, “That’s enough for one day.” Up until a few years ago, I didn’t aim to be anywhere. And in order to be nowhere, one does not need a to-do list as a guide. Focusing only on the most pressing matter in front of me was enough. Let the next urgent moment think for me. My mother had tried to teach me about planning my day ever since I was 10. But I never practiced it until I was 25 and done with college. That’s when I awoke to the fact that I didn’t want to waste any more time. I live in Nigeria, where life and success can be difficult. There seem to be many roads to failure here. I grew up seeing my mother firmly in charge of her day. She knew—and still knows—where she needed to be at every moment, in every detail. She may not be good at singing, acting, or sports. But she is excellent at planning. Every day she writes a list. I never understood why she had to write down a list that consists of items you can easily hold in your mind. “Your to-do list is like your second mind,” she told my younger self. “If you ever feel lost or overwhelmed, you consult your second mind.” I didn’t understand what she meant by “a second mind” until I seemed to lose my first mind in my everyday life. Sometimes, it seems as though it’s the rainy season in my mind, flooded with confused and distracting thoughts that lead nowhere. I need a second mind—now! As I sit in the barbershop awaiting my nice haircut, a friend asks me “What’s next?” “Pick up my academic statement from college,” I say. “Then submit my poems.” “You’ve got it figured out like a granny,” he jokes. “No,” I say, “like my mother.”