Within a week of getting to my four year college, I began getting involved on campus. I soon found myself involved in multiple organizations and clubs, two of which I have eventually become president of. As I have become more involved in my four groups, I have spent more and more time running around campus, putting on events and meetings. I love being super involved in my college but I often hear some negative things towards my busy schedule. Although the comments aren't all supposed to be negative, they aren't exactly positive either. My high involvement is my choice and I love it, but I'd also like to stop hearing these ten remarks about everything I do around campus.
1. You do too much. Maybe you think that and sometimes even I think that, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it.
2. You look like you haven’t slept in three days. First of all, thanks for telling me I look terrible without directly saying it. Secondly, there are only so many hours in a day; maybe I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. Or maybe I’m not feeling well. Regardless, it’s kind of rude to tell me I look like I haven't slept enough.
3.You should take a break. Taking a break isn’t always possible. There are deadlines and other set things that can’t just be moved for my convenience. Believe me, there are a lot of times I’d love to take a break but often I just have to push through and suck it up until everything is finished.
4. Do less. Again, not always possible. If I were just a general member or in a large enough club, it might be possible to just drop it. However I am a high-ranking officer in everything I’m involved in which means if I quit, they’ll have to scramble for a replacement or add my stuff to someone else’s list of duties. I’d feel super guilty if I quit on anyone.
5. Why do you do so much? I don’t really know why I do all of this. I think I learned from my mom who was always involved in church and our schools and I just picked it up. I'm also not the greatest at speaking to others and making friends, so being involved forced me to get out there and make friends. It’s also taught me about leadership (delegation, delegation, delegation as my friends like to remind me lately) and speaking up, especially about my ideas and opinions. I also want to have a good resume so hopefully doing all of this helps me land a good job after graduation.
6. Take time for yourself. It’s not that I don’t, it’s just other tasks tend to get prioritized higher than that. It’s hard to relax when I know I still have stuff to do for other clubs.
7. You never hang out with me anymore. Although I have a lot to do, I do find time to hang out with friends. But if you always ask me to hang out late the night before a long event day, I probably won’t be able to because I need to sleep when I can so I’m not falling asleep on my feet the next day. I hate missing out but I also don't want to exhaust myself more than I do.
8. Let me guess, you have an event to run so you won’t come. Please don’t stop inviting me to do things with you because you just assume I can’t ever hang out. It’s insulting for you to almost invite me and then take back the invitation because you think I’m too involved and won’t make it. I always want to but sometimes my schedule doesn't allow it. You won't know unless you actually ask me.
9. You’re going to kill yourself doing all of this extra stuff. Nah, I probably won’t. Believe it or not, I do know my limits in terms of involvement and commitments. To others, it may seem like I do too much, but I actually think I thrive and function better doing all of this versus not doing anything outside of classes.
10. How do you have time to do school work?? Truth be told, sometimes I really think I don’t I have the time, although my parents like to remind me that I’m going to school to get a degree, not to get involved in everything under the sun. There are a lot of nights I get home late and work on homework until 2 or 3am and then wake up at 8am and start the crazy schedule all over again. School still comes first and I haven’t done terribly in any classes due to clubs and other activities outside of class.
