Annemarie
So… I’ve been busy. Too busy to publish this blog post on its intended date, but with the magic of WordPress no one has to know about that! It’s finally fall, and even though my city is in the middle of a massive heatwave, it certainly feels like I’m back in school and back to my daily routine. So, this month’s blog post is just going to be a little ramble about school and the overwhelming busy-ness that comes with it.
I stayed pretty busy during the summer, between work and writing and loads of other things, but anyone who goes to school can tell you that no matter what, your life will always escalate in intensity the minute September 1st rolls around. I’m already starting to get extremely busy between homework and extra-curricular activities, and we’re barely a month in.
One of my favourite YouTubers and humans in general, Lilly Singh, always says “busy is a blessing.” If you watch her daily vlog channel, you’ll know just how much that woman works- I swear she can do more in a day than I can in a week. She hustles seemingly every minute of every day, and her hard work usually pays off. She’s also constantly sleep deprived, and often talks about how she has to make difficult sacrifices (like cancelling plans with friends or family) to get work done. But she stands by her philosophies of “hustle harder” and “busy is a blessing”, and her sheer determination and dedication to her job is a huge inspiration for me.
I look up to Lilly for being able to stick to those philosophies, but it’s so difficult for me to do that most of the time. When my to-do list is too long to fit in my day planner and I have to start sacrificing things I love to do in order to finish schoolwork, I don’t view “busy” as a blessing at all. I get unmotivated and lazy impressively quickly, and I often end up procrastinating to avoid doing any work at all. This sends me spiralling into a cycle of not wanting to do work, getting more work, hating myself for not working, and eventually finishing it without any feeling of satisfaction.
This is particularly relevant when school starts up again, and I have to squeeze an entire category into my life that I lived rather comfortably without for the past two months. In the summer, I focused on work, writing, and fun, and for the most part, I managed to juggle all three and my life was pretty balanced. Add the massive commitment of school to this equation, and the categories become increasingly difficult to juggle and you find yourself dropping all of the balls. That is why I had to quit my job, why I write significantly less during the school year, and why I don’t have as much time for myself. And with the extra pressures of senior year and university applications looming on the horizon, it’s so hard to adapt the mentality that any of this is a blessing when I’d rather be able to spend my days how I want to, pleasantly juggling like I did in the summer.
But the reality of it is- school is one of my top priorities. It always has been, and it probably always will be. I value doing well in school and getting a good education. Even though the sacrifices I have to make are never easy, they’re usually worth it in the long run. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in plans and deadlines, and forget why you’re even doing all the things on your to-do lists, not to mention how lucky you are to have the opportunity to be able to do them.
If I step back and take a look at my life, set aside my to-do list and think for a while, things begin to come back into perspective. I’m in my last year of high school, working hard so that next year I can begin studying to be able to do something I love for the rest of my life. I’m healthy and happy, and I have so many blessings in my life that I should take more time to count. So, yes. To answer the question in the title of this blog post, I think busy is a blessing, even when it seems like it’s anything but.
So, to round this off, here is a relevant song by Dodie, another one of my favourite YouTubers (and humans), about the ups and downs of being busy.
Drink some water, and take care of yourselves. I’ll be back in late October!
-Annemarie
(#27)
