Long weekends are my favorite. For most college students, an extra day in the weekend warrants some more time to go out without any regrets that you have an early class Monday morning. For me, an extra day gives me an excuse to recharge and get back on track. Though academically this semester hasn’t been super stressful, my extracurriculars and the fantastic job hunt have left me running like an iPhone on “20% remaining.” As many Stevens students know and love, lack of sleep is the norm but after a while it really wears you down. There are only so many cups of coffee you can consume before you explode, like the new Galaxy Note 7.
My recharging weekend began with picking up my car. For those who don’t know me, I’m in love with my car. At the age of 17, I discovered that there was something liberating about driving. Back in my high school days, if I ever was stressed out my go-to activity was to drive aimlessly around, maybe pick up some Starbucks or McDonald’s, and make my way back to my house. Being that Hoboken is an actual parking nightmare and I really beat up my poor car on the Babbio scaffolding two summers ago (a story for another column), I really can’t drive around like I used to. Cruising down the New Jersey Turnpike while blasting some tunes was such a relief after a very anxiety driven couple of weeks. It brought me back to simpler times where my biggest stress was AP Chem and maybe who was going to ask me to prom. Though my driving adventure wasn’t as aimless as what they used to be, it definitely grounded me for my next recharging weekend activity, camping.
My former Girl Scout Troop leader would be extremely pleased to hear that I thoroughly enjoy camping. Hearing cicadas chirp in the distance and the wind bustle through the trees is an experience you really can’t recreate. Being one with nature, even if we were only half hour away from New York City, had a super soothing affect to me. Even though I didn’t have running water or a flushable toilet for nearly 3 days, camping was very relaxing and allowed be to bond with all the people who went on the trip with me. It gave me the perfect excuse to turn off my cell phone and shamelessly ignore any responsibilities I have. Not having 1000 things on my mind and focusing on staying warm/other camping related activities had allowed me to refocus and determine what actually is important to get done the rest of the semester. I do have to admit my weekly to-do list planning was a lot less frantic this week with this new zen discovered inside of me. This was a trip planned since the beginning of the semester but actually happened at the most opportune time in my semester.
Contrary to what I thought “recharging my batteries” entailed, I didn’t sleep this weekend. Quite honestly, I woke up earlier than what I do during the week and surprisingly I didn’t mind. Ultimately, when you get super run down you really have to do what you think it’s best. For me, that was sticking to what I know calms me down and conveniently doing something I love. Also, a huge part of it was getting away from Hoboken. As awesome as our campus and town is, sometimes you need a change of pace. For people who live close to home like myself, this is an easy fix to escape our town. For those out of state folk, you can easily escape to New York City or even explore Jersey City. I think Drake said it best when he said “Oh yeah, that’s right, I’m doing me.” Sometimes you need to be selfish and do what you need to do to get back on track with your life.
A huge lesson I learned from college is to prioritize yourself first. If you find yourself run down and running on low power, take some time, or in my case a whole weekend, to recharge yourself. Your work is going to get nowhere if you’re burnt out. Your productivity will be nonexistent if you’re too busy worrying about every other thing in your life. All in all, remember to recharge your batteries before your well being takes a toll for the worst.
Be First to Comment