The most superficially busy year of high school for me was my sophomore year. Because I had just shifted schools, I had no friends, and few acquaintances - certainly no one that I could hang out with. I had all this extra time that I needed to fill up with something. So I joined clubs. My first semester at this new high school was filled with a club everyday of the week.
Literally.
I had Christian Club, JSA, Interact, CSF, and an additional tutoring day which I spent tutoring or attending the Friday lunch service. My life was scheduled around my activities and my activities were my life. Without some structure, my life would have crumpled very easily. It was very hard to integrate into a school that had already established social groups and unwritten boundaries for me to navigate. It was like re-doing freshman year with the added disadvantage that all your classmates already had friends and knew their school status. Frequently, no one knew mine.
Luckily, I met some friends in my English class who introduced me into their circle of friends, so I wouldn't have to eat my way though high schools in pursuit of time-wasting activities. But at the same time, having friends meant that I would have to give up on some of my clubs and the duties incurred in them, insofar as any organization would trust a strange-looking 10th grader with anything. I happily tossed my scheduled life aside for friends, a choice I will never regret.
But now the choice returns full circle - I am over-booking myself, with 2 speeches in the next two weeks and research for debate due each week. I can hang out and enjoy life, or become a sucessful speaker, an accomplished Toastmaster, a brilliant debater, and a dedicated student. But I can't have it all. I need to balance my time spent working and having fun - no question about it. But what is the ratio that I can thrive at? How can I balance my obligations to the community AND to my personal happiness?
I need help.
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Monterey
(see title)
If you see a mention of another person,
it is a figment of your imagination.
Neither you, them, your imagination, or figments exist.
Falling jelly
Monterey
1 comment:
The skill of balancing activities, friends, work, and obligations is the most important thing you start to learn in college. (And then you spend the rest of your life practicing). You'll muddle through and try this and that. Drop activities when the burdens feel heavier than the benefit; learn how much you really need to study to get the grade you want and quit over-studying; learn how much social stuff you can handle without being too tired / hung-over / over-committed to enjoy the rest of your life.
And things don't have to be perfectly balanced every day, every week, or every month as long as, overall, you find time for work, classes, friends, and other activities you want to pursue or that you enjoy.
You can have a few weeks or months where you're over-committed with work and activities, then drop some activities for a while and just hang out with friends, then commit to other activities for a while. No job, social club, volunteer organization, or college class requires a lifetime commitment.
Frienships certainly require attention, but anyone who can't handle it if you are sometimes too busy to get together is too high-maintenance anyway!
Just my two cents. (Long enough to feel more like two dollars, I know...).
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