Slow it down.

It recently came to my attention that I have a tendency to race through life. Let's face it--I'm a worrier. I worry about school and family and friends and love and the weather and my health and undergraduate research and whether or not I'm good enough to get a grant and whether or not I'm going to be something in my college career and whether or not I'm reading enough and whether or not I watch too much TV and whether or not I'm in the right career path and...

You get the picture.

My biggest worry is that I am what I hate: a fraud. I do all these things, and people tell me that I work so hard, but sometimes I worry that I'm not working hard enough. I worry that I'm not smart enough to get all the praise that I do or to receive the grades that I do.

I know that I am not the only person out there who worries. You see, it's like a sickness that spreads through your mind and makes it impossible to slow down. I have to keep going, and when I don't, I feel incredibly guilty.

I was talking to a guy in one of my classes the other day. He was going to a free concert with some of his friends and wondered if I was gonna go, and I said that I had too much homework. Then he just laughed and told me that I should never be too busy to have some fun on a Friday night. However, I stayed home and did my Spanish homework (and watched Netflix).

Not too long after that, I found this picture:

In one of my political science classes, we talked a little bit about work hours and how they coincide with productivity. Amazingly, in countries like France, where people only work 35 hours a week, the productivity was the same as people in countries like Japan, where people work 80+ hours a week. What does that mean? It means that when you have a little fun, the work somehow is better as well.

I know that I work hard. I don't know if I work hard enough for my standards, but that shouldn't matter. When I die, do I want to look back on my life and think Man, I sure worked hard, or do I want to think Man, I made some good memories with my friends and family? I think it can be both. I like working hard--it makes me feel good. But I need to remember that working too hard and worrying too much will just make me rush through the life that I'm supposed to live.

Make time for work, make time for play. Believe me, you need both of them.

cheers,
ka.