There comes a time college where we may question our sanity. Some time between staying up all night to finish that essay because you thought taking 18 credits would be OK and debating if you’re really able to go to every club meeting you’ve (for some crazy reason) committed to. How can you do so much and not completely burn yourself out- am I burned out? What is it like to even not feel stressed 24/7? In this day and age we seem to have glorified taking on more than we can handle. We use it as a method of comparison saying that so and so isn’t as accomplished as you JUST because she gets a full ten hours of sleep- but that is SO silly. She’s being healthy, I’m getting 3 hours of sleep because- well why?
This glorifying of doing too much is where we’ve crossed the line. Society always seems to glorify the wrong things- just take a look at any of the magazines when you go buy your next box of donuts at the grocery store (which I hope is soon because- donuts). One prominent thing that stands out with each magazine regardless of the genre it covers is that we’ve glorified ridiculous aspects- an unhealthy body type, an unhealthy obsession, individuals famous for quite literally nothing. See the trend? You got it, unhealthy. Humankind took a turn in the wrong direction somewhere along the road because we’ve ended up thinking that doing what’s not good for us is actually good for us. Now that you realized that don’t you feel silly?
I’ve spent my entire college career so far loading one thing after the other onto my plate, and don’t get me wrong they’ve shaped me into the person I am today and I don’t regret a thing. But it’s also so important to take care of ourselves.
I want to tell you and myself that it is completely okay to spend your Sunday doing quite literally nothing all day. It is okay to binge watch every episode of How I Met Your Mother and eat more cookies than you’d care to admit. It’s not just okay, it’s a good thing to take a moment to breathe and just do nothing.
I want you to know that you’re not wasting your time if you aren’t doing something “productive.” We are on this planet for about 80 years, if we’re lucky. We’re not promised tomorrow—and would you really want to spend your very last day stressing out about everything you have to do? Of course not. It’s important to hold close the idea of how precious each moment is and how precious each person in our life is. Before you load 923940239 things onto your plate, make sure that you’re not neglecting the important things in life. I know this seems like such an obvious statement, but I’ve seen both others and myself get so caught up in doing everything that they forget the little things. It’s totally completely absolutely okay to go out with your friends or get dinner with your family sometimes. So put away your laptop and go get up and get outside, take a deep breath, and remember what you’re really trying to live for.
