With most students back to school after an overly long break, the days can start to feel long and mundane. Maybe the classes that looked exciting on your schedule turned out to be sleepy lectures, and the grey weather can make the mornings feel dreary. Some days feeling down is inevitable, but you have no downtime to take a break. On days like that, all I want to do is to curl under a blanket and watch "New Girl" until my eyes hurt. But I know that days doing nothing can be even more frustrating than days full of activity. Sometimes you just have to get through the busy days, even when you are pretty sure your body would be obeying nature by going into hibernation.
I am the type of person who continues to put things on my plate and fill up my Google calendar until it just all can't get done and I am left to doubt everything. I add more clubs, accept an internship and say yes to plans but ultimately feel overwhelmed and like I'm not enough since I'm exhausted but everyone else seems to juggle it all just fine. When the gross weather hits it can get even more difficult to meet the expectation that the Shannon-of-weeks-past set for myself.
It's important to notice when feeling down starts to impact your routine and gets in the way of your work or school. It hasn't stopped me from going to class or interrupted any of my activities. But for others, seasonal depression is real and can be addressed. This is not about seasonal depression or any other mental health issue, which are far more complex and impactful than a few down days.
When walking all the way to the gym in the morning is the last thing I want to do, I treat myself to my favorite coffee from Starbucks and do whatever exercise makes me willing to take off my warm sweatshirt in favor of a workout tank, even if I hardly break a sweat. I think about what I would be doing if I wasn't working out or doing homework. Probably watching a show that I have seen 10 times or lying in bed on my phone. As much as it seems like a lot of work, doing things ultimately makes me feel better than sitting, letting myself overthink and feeling bad about not tackling everything on my to-do list.
It's OK to feel as bleak as the weather, and adjusting to a busy schedule again makes you wonder how you ever did it in the first place. Be nice to yourself, have a cookie at dinner or take a break when, yeah, maybe you could be taking notes.
There are more than 300 days until Christmas. And the optimism of the first month of the year has slowly drained for many. Valentine's Day hikes up the price of chocolate, not to mention a particularly anti-climactic Super Bowl. This all converges to create a general feeling of "eh." But that's OK, just remember to take care of yourself and do whatever little things make you happy, whether that be getting everything done, putting something off until tomorrow or just doing what you can.
