Over my past three years as a college student, I have noticed my own tendency to over-commit. Whether it’s taking 18 hours instead of 15, signing up for that extra service opportunity or volunteering to be a team leader when I really do not have the time to do so, I seem to always sign up for a million things. I’ll handle it really well until halfway through the semester and then miserably power through until break. This seems to be a common problem. I know a lot of UA students who are just like me. What’s even stranger is that we love to talk about how busy we are. It’s as if pulling a weekly all-nighter or running to six meetings within the same day is a sort of badge of honor.
Why exactly do we do this? I’ve done some reflecting, and I believe it is because we are trying to prove to others—and to ourselves—that we are enough, that we are smart enough, that we are doing enough, that we are organized enough to handle everything. It’s hard to be surrounded by incredible, successful people and feel as though you don’t measure up, so you add in that one more thing in the hopes that if both of your resumes land on the same desk one day, you won’t fall short.
There is nothing wrong with pushing yourself within reason. It is important to work hard and challenge yourself in terms of both personal and professional growth. But when we are working ourselves to the point of exhaustion 24/7, that is not healthy.
What I am starting to realize is that busyness is not the goal. If I am signing up for something and do not have a legitimate conviction that doing so will better me in the long run, but instead just feel as though I should be able to handle doing one more thing, I would be better off not doing it at all. Wanting to prove something to myself and others at the cost of my own time, energy and sanity is not a good move. And honestly, I doubt my future employer will care much about one extra line on my already-relatively-full resume.
The goal of college is not to pack in as much as we can but to grow as a complete person. This means growing not just academically but socially, spiritually, emotionally, etc. When I look back on my time at The University of Alabama, I do not want to remember being so stressed out all of the time that I had no time for anything else. Next year I will be a senior, and I have decided to take a step back. I am not abandoning all of my extracurricular activities, and I will still be taking quite a few credit hours, but I am going to say “no” to things I genuinely do not have time for, and I am no less of a person for doing so.
Lauren Deutsch is a junior majoring in operations management. Her column runs biweekly.
