Student Blog: A Fire Within Me!

The funny thing about burnout is that you always trick yourself into thinking you can avoid it. You do what you can to balance your work and play and include time for maximum rest (whatever that may be). 

But then the end of the semester rolls around and you find yourself piled with work and all of a sudden, all the motivation you had dissipates. The fire within you is silenced like two fingers on a candle wick. The smallest action feels like a weight on your shoulders and the voices in your head cannot be silenced. Any and all interactions, even with your favorite people, begin to sap all of your energy rather than recharge it. Is it the burnout from finals alone? Or is it the build-up from the whole semester, with your body and mind impatient for the rest that’s soon to come (‘rest’, my January break will be spent working, have no fear)? 

That pretty much describes where I am now. The end of the semester is in four days. In those four days, I have two exams and two projects due, along with the packing to prepare me for the very long January break. My last class ends at 10:00 pm on Wednesday night and I have to be out of the dorm building by noon the following day. It’s a quick and ruthless turnaround. 

Now, how do I handle burnout? 

… 

Is it bad if I say I don’t? 

I have a tendency to plan to blow through all my work and rest after all is said and done. I schedule the final days hour by hour, trying to take advantage of any free time to do work. So far, that’s been working pretty well but sometimes the naps are inevitable. I’m not the kind of person to ask for extensions nor am I the person to finish my work just to finish it. I may be the tiniest bit of an overachiever.   

One thing I’ll never do is pull an all-nighter. I’m the kind of person who NEEDS 8 hours of sleep. 7-6 hours debilitates me. I’ve watched all the Ted-Ed and Ted Talks that talk about what an all-nighter does to your body and brain, and trust me- I’m good. 

I like to pride myself on time management, but I think the hardest thing is taking advantage of free time while also balancing seeing all the friends I need before we are separated for a month. I think that's what helps keep me grounded sometimes. I need to keep in touch with people, not isolate myself, and take a moment to breathe and exist in the moment. 

Burnt out or not, that’s something I’ve always struggled with. 

So how do I handle burnout? 

I try to balance my time and re-evaluate how I value it. Time is precious, it’s something that everyone gets both a lot and never enough of. We need time to sleep, which is something that always makes the time we can use shorter. It doesn’t help that the days are literally shorter and your body is programmed to start winding down. Time is meant to be productive, but also to be enjoyed. This thought process helps me value not only my time but also the time of others, despite how frustrating it may be when none of our freetimes align. 

There’s nothing like getting to the age where plans with friends must be added to a calendar. 

The best thing about burnout is that once everything is completed, I just rot in my bed and watch a good show for a few days. That’s exactly what I did the three days before Christmas Eve. 

And it was amazing ;) 

Signed, 

J.F