Emily's Weblog

         There comes a point when anyone, even the most resourceful time manager or the most driven student, needs to throw up his or her hands and say, “Okay, too much; I’m done.”  Everyone knows that junior year is supposed to be a stressful one, but with the drudgery of everyday school work and extra-curricular activities plus looming AP tests and college applications, junior year can be more than stressful—it can be overwhelming.  What is one supposed to do when a mile-long list of projects, assignments, and goals pile up to the point that there seems to be no way out?  It’s so tempting to simply check out and give up, but my gut feeling always tells me that that isn’t the solution—after all, assignments would still accumulate, and the situation would only escalate.  So, whenever I’ve been too stressed to function in the past, I have tried to do something productive, like work out or paint.  Yesterday, though, I decided that these strategies just weren’t working for me right now.  Exercising just felt like more work, albeit in a different form, and painting made my stress even worse—whenever I tried to paint something, it didn’t turn out the way I wished, and so I would put it away, frustrated, and add its completion as yet another item on my to-do list.  What was the point of getting away from work by adding more work, even if it was work I enjoyed?  I no longer wanted to better myself or push myself; I was, to put it bluntly, sick of being productive. 

          All of these feelings I shared with one of my friends as were were driving home from going out to lunch.  She patiently listened to my complaining, then said that she had an idea to cure my stress.  The best way to feel refreshed, she said, was to spend some quality time doing nothing.  So, we pulled in to my driveway but didn’t get out of the car; instead, we opened the sunroof, turned on some music, and put the backs of our seats down.  Then, we just lay there.  We talked about random things but not about projects and deadlines; we stuck our feet out of the sunroof and changed the music if a song was bad.  For almost thirty minutes we sat there, not being productive at all and enjoying every second of it.  When we finally went into my house, I noticed that my stress had disappeared.  

          Every once in a while, everyone needs to make the conscious decision to waste time; it clears the head and puts things into perspective.  I think that, if we students weren’t always preoccupied with using our time well and being perfect, if we were willing to populate our days with a little inactivity, that we would be happier, more chilled-out people.