My senior year of high school, my theatre company did a set of student written shows called the BLOOM Theatre Project. These plays are typically geared towards younger kids, but this year, a certain part hit home.
One of the shows was entitled Venus Transit, written by Paige McWilliams. In the show, the main character, Chris, says,
"You ever see those triangles; they’re usually on the internet and have something written at the end of each point? Enough sleep, a social life, or good grades. Those are your options and you can only pick two. Which would you pick?"
This might sound a little crazy, but this past week, it's become so much more of a reality. With the craziness of recruitment, classes starting, and just adjusting to life back at school, all three of these have never been an option. I wake up, go straight to class, then straight to recruitment practice, and then there's pounds of homework. Sometimes I have time for dinner, on a good day.
Some might argue that this is just the very beginning of the year and that after recruitment is over, it'll all calm down. But will it?
It seems as if nowadays, we're always going, going, going. I'll stop to talk to someone on campus and 99% of the time, they're on their way to somewhere else, whether it be class, work, an internship, etc. No one is ever just sitting. There's homework to do, meetings to attend, classes to go to. Most of us have to get jobs to just be able to pay our way through college.
That's where the choice comes in: sleep, social Life, homework. Which two do you choose? If I choose social life and sleep, I fail my classes. If I choose homework and sleep, I never get to go out and have fun. If I choose social life and homework, where's the time to sleep?
And does it ever end?
We graduate college and immediately have to find a job. How else are we going to start paying back our student loans?
It seems as if we never get a chance to just breathe. But what choice do we have?
I could say, "Hey, let's just do nothing today." But that's a scary thought, isn't it? Because we don't know "nothing." It's impossible to think about not thinking about everything you have to do, because there's just so much of it. But, that's how the vicious cycle begins.
Balance is the key here. It's just a hard concept to grasp, yet it's what we all need. We need to learn how to dedicate an equal amount of time to the three sides of that triangle. That's going to come with some consequences, of course. For instance, if I choose to get enough sleep one night, it might lead to not finishing all of my homework or missing out on something with my friends. But if we don't make these sacrifices, we'll never be able to be completely happy or live our lives to the fullest.
Choose to stay in one night to finish your homework. Choose to get enough sleep instead of finishing that last assignment. Choose to go out and risk losing a few hours of sleep every now and then. Those are the choices you might have to make that lead to the consequences you'll have to deal with. Yet, maybe that's okay. Maybe, just maybe, that's the key to finding this balance we crave.
To make this balance possible, those consequences are going to have to be dealt with. I believe that if we're able to balance our lives well, the consequences will be worth it. If we all strive to balance our lives out, maybe, just maybe, we'll actually be able to choose all three sides of the triangle.
