In respect to becoming a doctor, I was once told that it was essential that I have what is called the “caretaker gene.” Basically what this means is that you enjoy helping people, and luckily for me, I do. When one of my friends gets sick, it is never a problem for me to bring them snacks or medicine and make sure that they have what they need. I like having the capabilities to take care of people, but sometimes I forget to take care of myself. I like to be the yes-man, but even the yes-man has to say no sometimes.
It takes a certain type of person to make a good doctor, and it turns out that many of us fit the same personality type. I recently spoke to a practicing physician at a networking event and told her how I got overinvolved in high school and was trying to take a step back when college started. The further I get in college, however, the more it seems that I’m falling back into some of the same habits. She told me that the exact same thing happened to her when she came to Butler, and that it’s just the type of person we are. We can’t help but get involved and help people. If I can’t stay away from a life filled with such time-consuming habits, however, it’s important that I keep myself alive while doing so.
One of the biggest things that gets me into trouble is that I hate to tell people no. I have the capabilities to help you out, and—technically—I have the time. The thing is, I end up sacrificing things like eating and sleeping in order to keep up with all of my responsibilities. I like to be the most-involved person in every organization I’m in, but I’ve come to realize that this just isn’t possible. If I’m going to be VP of an organization, it means that I need to step back and let others take the lead in another. Time management is key when you’re a superstar like I am *insert sarcastic hair flip here.*
In order to be a master of time management, however, that means that in addition to stepping back from a few things, some things need to go altogether. Note to everyone out there that is totally feeling this article: SLEEP IS NOT THE THING WE GET TO GET RID OF. To be completely frank, you just have to say no sometimes. It’ll disappoint people—which is kind of the worst feeling in the world for my personality type—but it doesn’t mean that they’re going to never speak to you again. Chances are, they know that you’re taking 20 credit hours, just joined a sorority and have a trillion other things on your plate. Let’s face it, it’s much better to tell someone no when they first ask rather than after you’ve gotten sick because you haven’t had more than three hours of sleep the last week because you were working on twenty different projects. People can handle disappointment; they encounter it every day. What people can’t handle, however, is pushing themselves too far for too long.
Tying this all together, the point I’m really trying to get across is that I/you/we need to take care of ourselves. Don’t overcommit yourself in the first place (if you can help it), but also remember that it’s okay to say no sometimes. Heck, it probably wouldn’t hurt you to take a day off and read a book or get a pedicure if you’re really feeling it. We caretakers love to take care of the world, but it’s also important to realize that the whole world isn’t depending on just us. It’s not like all of us are going to all take a day off on the same day anyway; therefore, my fellow world-savers, I charge you to please for the love of all that is good in the world, just go take a nap already and then you can go back to saving mankind.