This week, I’m just trying to survive. I have a test, I have a project due, I have a paper due, I have another test Tuesday that I haven’t even started to think about. Between studying and service projects and having to sit down and eat meals every day, I’ve barely had time to think, let alone write. Yet it is worthwhile to write, and it is worthwhile to breathe.

I’ve learned the hard way that if you let school or work take over your life, you cease to have a life. And then you start to cease having a self. I want to encourage everyone, including me, to carve out time to be yourself. It’s a deliberate process. You have to set aside time that could be used for something else, something pressing, but it’s so important to do.

All we have to contribute to this world is us. All I have to contribute to this world is me. And I can’t let all I have be crushed by mere workload. The world deserves a version of me that does not radiate stress, or at least that’s what I want to give to it--a version of me that does not radiate stress. A version of me that is others-centered, caring, kind, relaxed, not constantly harried by problems that are less significant than people.

These are easy words to write and hard words to live--you do your duty better to the world when you aren’t spendthrift with your time and energy, when you aren’t buried in and strung out by stress. So please, take care of yourself. Take time to build into yourself and relax, if not for your sake, then for the sake of everyone around you. One of the most important things we can do is contribute to a community. I am beginning to believe that our purpose here in this world very much relational.

All these problems are smaller and less important than people. All these problems are smaller and less important than the ones you love. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t work, I’m just trying to put things into perspective, because I don’t want to shove my focus off the important for the less important. It’s easy to become self-absorbed when you’re stressed. I’m still struggling with this, and I’m struggling with it a lot. Sometimes all I see are my problems, like they’ve been shoved two inches from my face.

But the way I treat people is more important than my test grades. My work ethic is more important than my test grades. My priorities have to be people. People make all the other stuff worth it.

P.S. I took my test and handed in my paper and project--I survived!