Recommended for you

Start writing a post

Health and Wellness

The Stress of Relaxation: Summer Edition

The stress that comes from having nothing to do

Chloe Bradburn

Jul 19, 2016

Wittenberg University

The Stress of Relaxation: Summer Edition

Chloe Bradburn

Why is it that summer is supposed to be so relaxing and calming, but it always turns out so damn stressful?

Don’t get me wrong, I love summer more than anything because, well, no homework.

But don’t you sometimes wonder why there seems to be a never-ending to-do list? I find myself adding different notes on my phone daily, which ends up in a cluster of random items ranging from inspirational quotes, from award shows, to “things I’d like to buy but know I never will” scattered together in no particular order.

I can’t help but notice how many emails I’d like to send or calls I need to make, but is it more than normal? Or am I just noticing my business because of my lack of actual stress?

I don’t know if this stress is something I am making up or something that actually exists, but I always feel more productive when I’m busier. In the summer, I find myself to be busy with appointments, scheduled workouts and golf lessons, but the time I have free never actually seems like free time.

I continue to think of the people I want to hang out with, but still need to balance that with nights with my mom binge watching The OC.

Oh and those trips I want to go on! How can I afford to do that? Will I actually be able to go on any of them?

Speaking of affording, I need a job… Ah the oh-so-present issue of the holiday job you had that doesn't need you back in the summer. So I should reach out to the families I used to babysit for, right? But all I want to do right now is eat ice cream and binge watch Netflix. Productive.

Turns out, ice cream is unhealthy. I am definitely trying to burn off the “15” pounds I gained freshman year, so maybe I can binge watch with kale and carrots. Yum.

I don’t have a cure for this rather odd feeling of “lack-of-stress-stress,” but I can tell you one thing: the things that need to get done and the people who need to be seen will get done and be seen. Enjoy the free summers you only have so many more of and allow yourself to actually breathe and relax because if you recall, there are only so many times you can do that while away from school.

Report this Content

This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

Health and Wellness

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Grand Canyon University

481

5 Ways To Bring Positivity Into Your Life When All You Want To Do Is Drown In Self-Pity

Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash

The first two weeks of classes have come to an end and they have been anything BUT easy. It seems like life has been serving up more bad than good and in all honesty, the only thing you want to do is crawl under your covers and hide from the rest of the world.

Although this seems like the best solution, it is also the easy way out. Take it from the girl who took basically a whole week off from her life because she just could not handle everything that was being thrown at her. This caused her to feel extremely lonely and even more stressed out for being behind in classes that JUST began.

Keep Reading...Show less

self-pity

Entertainment

11 Things We Learned From Brooke Davis

"What's more important? What we become or how we become it?"

St. Thomas Aquinas College

276

"She was fiercely independent, Brooke Davis. Brilliant, and beautiful, and brave. In two years she had grown more than anyone I had ever known. Brooke Davis is going to change the world someday, and I'm not sure she even knows it." - Lucas Scott, An Unkindness of Ravens

Brooke Davis of the hit show One Tree Hill was the it girl - she had it all, or so we thought. She started out as a stuck-up, shallow, spoiled, head cheerleader who didn't have her life together. She slept around a lot and loved to party - sounds like your typical high school teenager right? Wrong. B. Davis had so much more to offer. Caring, loyal, and outspoken, she has taught us some valuable lessons throughout the 9 seasons that OTH was on the air:

Keep Reading...Show less

brooke davis

Relationships

11 Signs You Have An Honorary Roommate

Make yourself at home, why don't you?

Appalachian State University

2161

Rachel Zadeits

For some of us, coming to college was the first time we ever had to share a room. It was a big change, but a fun one. As you meet more and more people over the course of your college career, it seems to be a pattern that you will at some point have that one friend that doesn't live with you, but acts like they do. We call those people, "Honorary Roommates" and here are 11 signs you have one in your life.