"Hey! Good to see you again. How are you?"
-"Good, crazy busy! You know how it is. And you?"
"Same here- I think I got 10 hours of sleep this whole week."
-"Ugh, this semester's just so crazy right now!"

As college students, we have a lot to juggle. Academics, working a job, being involved in clubs, having a significant other/dating and going out. There are so many things that fill up a schedule. Those don't even include the money, time, and energy that goes into eating healthy (er) and working out (even if it's every now and again). Student life feels like a rat race, where the prize at the end will be a successful job and future that leads to you having more money... and eventually more juggling. We don't have the time to "get away from it all" and focus on ourselves and those around us anymore. Instead, we have three classes, two meetings, and four papers that we really probably should have already written.

Isn't it time we take a step back? You should never feel like "the semester" is killing you, at least until finals. "Living for the weekend" has never been a good way to operate your schedule. You can only enjoy yourself 2.5/7 days of the week? That means that more than half of your days you are just pushing autoplay and trudging along. So why are we letting this become the norm? Interact with anyone you bump into on campus and you will have end up having this conversation about how busy you both seem to be.

It's time to put an end to the rat race. Yes, you still have to go to school, work, have a social life, and sleep. But cancel some plans every now and again. Stay in bed until noon if you need to remind yourself that you can. If you can't remember the last time you did something fun, go on a road trip so you can feel free as you sing along to the radio. Go to your local shelter and pet some animals to get a sense of the furry love you miss out on at school. Go to a party, go to sleep, but stop stressing yourself out about assignments, deadlines, and catching up on work. We stress ourselves out far too much. Now is our time to be growing, changing, and resting as we consider who we are and who we want to grow to become. It's not a race. It's a life. We can make it look like anything we want it to. Let's continue to leave a legacy we're proud of by being rested enough to make the change we deeply hope we make.

This picture was taken on a Wednesday night, after having classes most of the morning and afternoon. My friend and I had a small window of time, maybe a little under three hours before we had to go to the library and get our obligations for the day taken care of. We very easily could have gone back to our dorm to take a nap, and sometimes that's the best call we possibly could have made. But instead we chose to chase the sunset. We left for The Blue Ridge Parkway, and got to reconnect with what we find truly important.

Do what you want in each day, you're not guaranteed to have any more of them. Take rest for yourself, get to know yourself a little more. Blow off your obligations sometimes and rejoice in the fact that you are wholly, brilliantly alive and no one can take it away from you. When you take time to rest and prepare yourself, you will be so much more invigorated to interact with the world around you.

Stop aiming to be busy Start aiming to live on purpose.

"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."