Student Blog: Dealing with Burnout

I find my worst bouts of burnout are at the beginning of the semester. When I'm faced with reminders of the sheer amount of work that goes into a semester and have to recommit myself to doing it all again. It's hard. It really feels so daunting. I much prefer being smack dab in the swing of things in the middle of the semester. It's always a rocky start for me. 

As a sophomore, I’m still adapting to having new classes each semester, instead of how high school continued the same classes through the year. This makes the spring semester even harder to jump into. It’s hard when winter break is the perfect amount of time for me to relax and hang out with friends, without being too long that I start to get bored and crave routine. It’s hard to get super adjusted to a schedule that only lasts about 4 months.

I’d love to say that in these tough times, I remind myself of how rewarding it all is and that’s what keeps me going. But I usually have to come to that realization again. I tend to have a lot of doubt that each semester will be as good as the last. Sometimes it’s easier to imagine that things are harder than they are just to realize that they’re not. 

This semester, a majority of my classes are “gen eds” so they don’t relate to my major. This includes two different science classes and a geography course. Having to focus on these subjects makes it really easy to feel burned out, because I’m not inspired at all. I find my Intro to Philosophy course pretty interesting and I'm excited to write for my film appreciation course, but science and geography are some of my worst subjects. I’m really unmotivated for this semester as a whole, but I know I just need to get through it so I can focus on classes actually related to my major.

Burnout is hard, whether it’s at the beginning of a semester or the busy end. All we can do is try to keep ourselves grounded and try to remember the good that comes from these struggles. Know that the people around you experience it too, one way or another. It’s just a hurdle we have to get through to get to the really great stuff.