Are you overworking yourself? This blog shares the importance of balancing work-time and fun-time!
Success is Relative
I grew up 4 years behind a straight A’s, teachers favorite, genius sister, so growing in her shadow was challenging. It took me years to understand this one thing: success is relative. We spend our lives comparing ourselves to others: peers, social media influencers, friends, family, everyone. We must remember to not evaluate our success based on the accomplishments of others but the adversity we face and the growth that follows.
Owning Your Story Requires the Strength of a Hero.
The Hero's Journey has been so popularized, my daughter refers to it as cliche (a gut punch to a once psychology turned English major). So, let’s talk about the journey as it was before it became part of an assignment-- a story. Before psychology and English professors jumped on the bandwagon, the Hero’s Journey was our pocket manual on how to become better humans. It taught us how to use each part of our lives as a pathway toward integrity.
Just Chill and Learn
’m sitting in the back of a long room with 3 successful business professionals answering questions about what their college degrees have to do with their current career path. (Spoiler alert: Each of them aren’t doing anything related to their undergrad degree!!) As one of the professionals states, our purpose as students is to “chill and learn” . It's as if my entire college experience flashed before my eyes. Instead of feeling nostalgic about the past four years, I found myself feeling moments of regret.
Fear...It's Terrifying
If you’re familiar with the popular cartoon Phineas and Ferb, you can likely visualize the rapid passing of time portrayed in the intro theme song by the quick flipping of a daily calendar. I’d say that’s an accurate depiction of life right about now.
With each 5 minute snooze, 30 second stop light, and 9 seconds spent tying shoes, November 1st barrels near. That anticipated Monday is the day I must click the button on my Common Application and officially determine my top choice of school. Due to the nature of the admissions process, upon acceptance I must retract my applications from all other schools and attend that school.
As one can imagine, this is incredibly daunting. Come a week from the day I am writing this, I will have determined the place that I will spend the next four years of my life.
That’s not true.
Come a week from today I will have determined the place that I wish to spend the next four years of my life. I will have put the ball in their court and must then wait impatiently for yet another terrifying date. December 15: the day I know if the choice I made the month prior was even a choice at all.
So here is what I know about the college admissions process:
It’s a lot of writing & rewriting,
It’s a lot of deciding & waiting,
and
It’s a lot of opportunities for rejection.
Essentially,
It’s terrifying.
I’m scared of making the wrong decision--picking this school over that one. I’m terrified that although both are good options, maybe I’ll pick the one that’s just good, not great. Maybe I’ll regret that decision and forever wonder what would have happened had I leaned the other way.
I’m scared that I’ll hate college and I won't figure out what I want to do, and I’ll struggle to make friends and feel sick so far from home.
I’m scared of getting rejected from these schools, being told that the stack of papers that represent me and my work are not good enough for a school. I didn’t get a high enough test score. I didn’t participate in enough extracurriculars. My writing isn’t good enough.
I’m not good enough.
Of course this thinking is illogical and whether or not I am the student a school is looking for, or if my packet does or doesn’t make it to just the right pile at just the right time is not an evaluation of my worth or who I am as a person. Likely, whatever school I pick, I will fall deeply in love with and have the experience that is just right for me. I’ll have an amazing four years and make connections that last a lifetime. Or, maybe I won't enjoy my time. Perhaps, I will feel distant and alone. These are not unrealistic fears, but the possible and probable beautiful things that can come of my college experience will forever outweigh the fear that I feel pressing that final button in my application.
I told you what I know about the college admissions process.
Here is what I know about fear:
It will never totally go away
It is something that everyone struggles with
and
It doesn’t have to hold you back
You’re going to be scared. Whether it be of monsters under your bed or the uncertainty of the future, fear is a force of nature, a part of life that we all struggle with and will never fully go away. Don’t let it restrict the opportunities for triumph and amazing feats I know you are destined to accomplish. Progress into the things that scare you with courage and pride and be there for others when courage isn’t enough. Never forget, you are stronger than fear.