I have always been the over-achiever. I do very well in school and I am super involved in organizations, extra-curriculars, and my part-time job. I am very often told by a friend or family member, "I don't know how you do it."

Well to answer that question, neither do I.

Don't get me wrong, I do live off of a diet of coffee and a highlighted planner. Usually, my days are scheduled out to the minute.

However, I have been up at 2 a.m. finishing a paper or catching up on random tasks quite frequently. There is usually one of two ways that I am feeling at this point.

1. OMG I HAVE SO MUCH ENERGY! YAY COFFEE AND ADRENALINE! LET'S DO ALL THE THINGS!

or

2. *crying* I am dying. I am dead. This is never going to work. Why did I agree to do this? I want to drop out and be a stripper. *more crying*

Unfortunately, option two happens far more frequently than option one.

Trust me, when I say that I have no idea how I do everything I do, these are the moments that I am referring to. In those desperate moments of checking off the final to-do item, I am usually so drained and frustrated that I'm not quite sure where I pull the energy from. Eleanor Roosevelt has spoke to me far more times than I care to count. "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

The reason that I always somehow pull myself together to "do all the things?"

I have something to prove. I grew up in rural Nebraska where a woman who did not put all focus on her husband first is a rarity. I grew up being told that I was "too short" or "too weak" to do so many things. I have something to prove because I live in a society that still subliminally promotes the message that women are less than men.

I want to prove that I can stand on my own two feet. I work my pa-tooty off so that no one can say that I found success by just batting my eyelashes or because some man gave it to me in a moment of charity.

I am an over-achiever because no one notices the person that just gets by. I am the youngest child in my family and I am used to being noticed. In the real world, no one will notice me if I do not do all that I can do well. If I am going to get where I want to be, I have to push back the tired and the cranky, and just do.

And the final confession from the know-it-all and do-it-all herself:

As hard as I find it to ask for help--with anything--it is necessary. All the cool things I've done and the classes that I have aced--I could not have done with out my cheerleaders. My parents, my teachers, my friends, my boyfriend, my aunts and uncles, and my roommates have all made sure that I have survived those 2 a.m. panics. Thank you for that. And you know what? I have learned to listen to the best advice that I have been given over and over again.

"It is all going to be okay. You can do this."