Take the Time to Waste a Moment

I can manage the newspaper, but can I manage my time?

Photo+by+Mara+Fryer

Photo by Mara Fryer

Senior year is all about time. It’s about the time I spend doing what I love, the time I spend with the people I love, and the time that’s endlessly ticking until I leave for college. There is so much I am trying to pack into so little time. There’s Blue Jay sports to go to, homies to hang out with and family dinners to have arguments with my sister at – not to mention the five activities I’m a leader of and the job I have to help me pay for the necessary cups of coffee that push me through all of this.

The activities seemed like a good idea at first. Colleges love to see an abundance of extra-curricular activities, especially when you’re the president of half of them. So when the time came to apply for these positions, I thought, “It’s senior year, time to experience things and make things happen.” Oh honey, did I have a big storm coming. Little did I know, the only experiences would be some magical midnight breakdowns and the only things that would happen are the tardies I got for sleeping in or getting coffee – sorry, Oyler.

As much as I hated it, I knew there was a clear and obvious solution to my problem. But why would I take the easy way out when I could stress myself out? Yeah, my reasoning wasn’t the greatest.

I had so much to keep track of for seven classes and eight clubs, so things slipped through the cracks. I’d miss an officer meeting for a club, forget to do an AP Stats assignment and stay up well past midnight, trying to pull everything together. The anxiety and pressure became more and more, while the energy and motivation became less and less. Everything just kept building up until I realized I couldn’t do this anymore. The advice I had given myself about experiencing things and making things happen during my senior year was true but this was not the way to do it.

As much as it pained me, I knew what I had to do. I analyzed my list of activities and decided to give up my leadership role in two of them. It was difficult to give up something I loved but I knew I had to do it for the sake of my mental health. For the rest of the year, I’m trying something new. For the first time, I’m starting to prioritize myself over all of my activities.

In the first part of senior year, my motto was “experience something.” Now, I have a new motto in the form of a Kings of Leon song: “Take the time to waste a moment.” So for the rest of the year, that’s where you’ll find me. I’ll be taking the time to do what I love with the people I love, one wasted moment at a time.