Make time for a slice of humble pie.

{photo}

I've always been busy, always been running around campus, whether I had meetings to go to or textbooks to study. My first semester of college has been a whirlwind, but the first month of my second semester has already been ten times more hectic than the beginning of the year.

On top of studying, writing, editing, and planning, I have also taken up exercising. I have always wanted to make exercising a more routine thing, but I constantly fell back on the excuse that "I didn't have time."

But then I realized. The hour (well, more like two..or three hours) I spend procrastinating on Tumblr or Twitter can be spent at the gym. Not only do I make good use of my time by getting fit, but I also get energized and become happier. I actually find myself feeling enthusiastic about going to the gym and looking forward to it at the end of the day. Endorphins are some hell of a hormone!

Despite my added burst of energy, I am still exhausted by the end of the day. Slipping underneath my covers after a long day is such an appreciated luxury. It's relaxing yet agonizing, since I know that the next day will only be the same cycle of craziness I had experienced all day.

Fridays (to many college students) are usually meant for weekend hurrahs that include excessive drinking and/or super short body-conscious skirts. My Friday consisted of going to the gym, buying granola bars and strawberries at the supermarket, watching Merlin, and then catching the Zs by 11:30. Ohh yes, I went to bed before midnight on a Friday night. I couldn't dream of something like this in high school.

I have a tendency to ramble about how busy and tired I always am to my roommate. "Oh I always have these meetings, these workshops, these deadlines, etc. etc." She always comments on how quickly I fall asleep at night, since it takes her hours to fall asleep. A busy, working body has made me drift to sleep like a baby.

I thought about the way that I would drag on about my priorities and obligations, and how I would laud my to-do list as a blessing and a burden. And I realized that...I am not special for being busy. Everyone is busy. Everyone has things to do. I am not the only one who rarely has breathers anymore. My roommate is busy (though she claims that she is nowhere as busy as me), my professors are busy, my TAs are busy, my classmates are busy, the school faculty is busy. I shouldn't single myself out as such a hard-working, busy person because...well...I'm not the only one. There are many people who have so much more to do in so much less time than me.

And it's all rather humbling. Knowing that I'm one of many with dreams, with obligations, with a life. We're all working it all out at our own pace. And there's nothing wrong with that.