What kind of freedom could you possibly have once summer is over?

When you're still a student with years to come of education, you know the end of summer just means the start of the new semester and school year where countless assignments and deadlines start piling up right before your eyes. In this case, you’re limited to doing certain activities you might have done during the summer when you had all this free time.

Maybe this is just me, but I find the start of a new semester doing countless schoolwork as more freeing than being on vacations. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll mention it again, but long breaks do not mix well with me. All this free time makes me feel vulnerable to wasting my time doing something like watching Netflix all day instead of something productive. So why exactly do I find the new semesters and generally being in school more freeing and fulfilling?

I think this can be broken down to one simple reason as to why: I actually feel important during school and my time is being spent well. Now I’m not saying I feel unimportant elsewhere. Am I an important person in my family? Of course. Do I feel important when I’m with my friends when we hang out? Heck yeah. It’s just when I’m in school surrounded by all these facilities, all this buildings that I can access, this sense of accomplishment overcomes me and I actually feel free.

Another factor that can tie into me feeling more free during the semester is the position I hold amidst my studies. I may be a student, but I also participate in and work for an on campus facility that enables me to help other people as a writing tutor. So what better way to utilize my time by actually helping people instead of thinking about all my problems at once? Granted, even this kind of work can get stressful, but it’s the kind of stress that feels great once you accomplish a goal. In a way, working and constantly being on my feet in an academic setting motivates me better than sitting around and trust me, this is a really big help for someone like me when my mental illness ruins most of my thought process in any given situation. It's such a different environment compared to being at home and it constantly reminds me that I have so many options and there are many things I can do just for myself.

Of course, the start of a new semester might not feel this way to everyone else. But are you also someone who's driven by the academic atmosphere of school to the point where you feel more free there than anywhere else? Perhaps I'm not alone after all, however there is still one very important thing to keep in mind amidst the semester and new school year.

You might be free and have the options to do so much that you might not be able to normally, but don't over exert yourself.

Even freedom can have its limits.