I know the title of this blog sounds super dramatic, but by the end of last semester I was honestly spiraling into a dark hole. I don’t think I’ve had a more hectic and stressful semester in my entire university career.
But thank goodness for the break. I’ve never appreciated time off from school the way I did this December. I feel like I can often take these breaks for granted. Sleeping in everyday, staying up late, eating my break away and just not really doing anything productive; not making the most of my days off.
This break, after the mass amounts of stress I was carrying, I actually had the time to stop and appreciate what was happening. I was not in school. When you think about it, it’s quite weird. We’re dipping our feet into the “real world”. We have time to explore what we please, without school being a factor of our daily lives. While I very quickly got into the swing of working 9-5 (what a way to make a living), I had my nights off. I had time to see friends that came home for the holidays, lounge around with my family and even found time to read—for fun! I had time to explore future career options and really just time to dream, big.
It’s so weird how wrapped up one can get in things. How the weeks pass so quickly, and you don’t realize til something requires you to write down the date. I mean, can you believe that New Years Eve was over two weeks ago. TWO WEEKS. That’s 14 days; 14 whole days of your life. I’m not saying this as a bad thing, but more of a realization. Life really does fly by. And when I found myself with a bit of time to think, I realized that even though the time might be going fast, I want to fly by with a smile on my face, with great memories. I also want to work hard & reach ALL of my goals, even the crazy impossible ones.
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali
So I sat down and wrote a list. Okay, that’s a lie. I didn’t actually make a physical list (yet), but I made one mentally. Of things I want to do, with my schooling, with my future jobs, where I want to travel, what I want to see (bands, movies, museums, bridges, oceans, streets), places I want to eat, things I want to make etc. etc. etc. I found that just thinking about these things, about what I want to be exposed to in my lifetime, was what helped me prepare for this semester. That might sound a bit ridiculous, but it really did. It helped me see that school is only one bullet point on my list. While school is very important, it won’t last forever. It helped to calm me down and remove a level of anxiousness I often feel when ‘school’ hits my brain waves.
What did you do this break? Was there anything that really helped you prepare for the new semester?
If there was, I would really love to know. I found that having this time off, to relax a little, make a bit of money and just have fun, really calmed me down. It was the perfect thing I needed and I want to thank Ryerson—especially for that extra week off we got, because it’s nice to have a school that cares about your well-being.
Here’s to Winter 2014!
I hope you all have a wonderful, stress free, winter semester!
Feel free to connect with me on Twitter: @evesharabi
