Work, work and work.
Now that summer has finally come upon us, the nearly-eternal struggle to stay ahead of, well, everything should have subsided and left us to relax.
Or so you’d think.
But even after the 15-18 credit hours cease, the work doesn’t end.
Whether it’s online classes, internships, part-time jobs, full-time jobs or indentured servitude, we are still dogged by stress and ?worries.
Perhaps we aren’t doing enough to prepare us for our careers.
Perhaps we’re doing too much and aren’t enjoying our present life because of our perceived future life.
I propose that we all take a day off, effective immediately, so we can live a day without imagining the worst just over the horizon or trying to find ways to make ourselves stand out of the faceless crowd so we are noticed.
Let’s put aside the possibilities of our future for a day and enjoy the day as it is.
It’s all well and good to prepare for the future, but that future’s worth is discounted if the entire journey is fraught with misery.
It’s difficult to weigh the value of suffering now against a good future.
And what if, in the future, you realize you’re not happy doing what you’ve chosen?
What is all that suffering worth?
It’s quite a gamble to be unhappy now just so that you might be happy later.
Isn’t the surest way to achieve happiness not to find it in an external factor, but ?internally?
I know this sounds a bit new-agey, but if we can find satisfaction in the simple fact of living or in the realization most things that ultimately affect us are far beyond our control, wouldn’t that take a large measure of stress off our backs?
I do not mean to suggest taking a day off will somehow provide this inherent self-satisfaction and you can go live your life as some guru atop a mountain afterwards.
But at the very least it gives you an opportunity to consider if you are indeed happy with your life’s ?trajectory.
And it is far better to do that now than five years down the road when you are in your clinical psychology program and you realize that you really dislike people.
So go and take a day off. Take a walk. Read a book. See friends. Grab some ?coffee.
Or, better yet, take a walk to a coffee shop to see friends and read a book while you wait.
Enjoy the day.
@IAmJoshAllen
