After last week, I am now officially in the thick of the semester. The norm of near-constant classes, meetings, rehearsals, and work have replaced the relative calm I experienced in my first several days back on campus. Back on the grind, I guess!
My first reaction to this busy week was frustration. On Monday, I was booked for 8 straight hours, and while I could have given myself a break somewhere in that time span, I (foolishly) chose not to. This left me tired and regretful.
Tuesday and Wednesday were similarly busy, with meetings and events coming up unexpectedly. I got through it, although a lot of projects I’d hoped to start were put on hold for a few more days.
Thursday and Friday could have been more productive, but the early-week craziness finally caught up with me. Much of my time these days was spent, not necessarily resting (because I still had lots of things to do), but doing slightly more restful activities, like walking, listening to music, and hanging out with friends.
If you’ve stuck with me through what probably sounds like a mundane week for Stevens’ standards, written in a style vaguely reminiscent of the Cure’s “Friday, I’m in Love” (although with more mundane subject matter), I thought I’d share two major takeaways from this busiest week yet.
The first is simple – I’m old. Or at least, older than I once was. My freshman self likely would’ve dealt with the 8 consecutive hours of work on Monday and the busy days after that, and still had a decent reserve of energy come Friday evening. But my senior self (emphasis on senior) must be much more careful about how to expend this energy.
This is scary, because I’m 99.9% certain that life will get exponentially busier in the coming weeks and months. Still, I’m thankful to have this experience early in the semester, on a week that, in hindsight, will pale in comparison to the hectic weeks ahead. I can adjust and plan more regular breaks to refresh periodically as each week progresses, so I’m not singing something like “Friday, I’m Sick and Tired of *insert annoyances here*” by the end.
But even if breaks are hard to come by, I’ve found several other sources of energy and motivation this week, which is my second key takeaway. I had several chances to catch up with friends and loved ones, some of whom I hadn’t seen in months, and after every conversation, I felt renewed and ready to tackle something I had to work on. As an introvert, I often forget the inspiration that can come from quality human interaction, so I am eternally grateful to these people for showing me this time and again.
Even the smaller things, like taking an early morning walk to my favorite park, or finding a new album to listen to and hearing one of its songs mention the street I lived on over the summer, filled me with belief and joy even as I struggled with fatigue. It seems that motivation is all around looking to be found, singing “I don’t care” about all the weekday craziness, like in the Cure song. I hope to keep all of this in mind as I get even deeper into this semester.
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