Sometimes, I think I spend my whole day waiting for nightfall. Waiting for that chance half-hour or forty-five minutes when I’m done meeting the requirements of the day and lay down on my bed for my "me" time. My "me" time is precious to me, a time I describe to my family as being for "me, myself and I alone."

It’s no surprise that as people, our lives can tend to get a little overwhelming. When you’re a college student who also happens to be student teaching and living at home at the same time, it’s often necessary to juggle priorities and meet everyone in the middle. And of course, I love it — love being surrounded my kiddos at school and my family at home but there are times when I’d like to take a Sharpie and draw a box around myself; a box of peace and self-love.

In a way, it’s a very Zen concept, a sort of meditation and self-love thing and really, giving myself a fixed time every day that belongs to me is an act of self-love. Yes, maybe I lose a half-hour of sleep and maybe I can be unnaturally cranky when someone has the nerve to interrupt my time, but giving that reward to myself is one of the best stress-relieving mechanisms in my arsenal.

It doesn’t have to be anything overly crazy either. There are days when my muse strikes and I try to whip up a mug cake recipe from Facebook that resembles cake only in appearance (in taste, my mug cakes strongly resemble sandals). Usually, though, if you’re brave or foolish enough to enter my nighttime abode, you’ll find me curled up on my bed, hidden under blankets with a book in my hands and a bowl of some sweet treats next to me.

In a world where I feel like I’m constantly juggling demands, expectations, priorities, and my own capricious moods, having that small piece of sanity to look forward to is a lifesaver. Because we’re human — we try, we fail, we work, we fall, we stand up—and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that sometimes we don’t need to give ourselves the giant gestures.

Self-love is like all love — it doesn’t need to be grand or take a ton of time but it’s something we need to foster and I believe that being selfish about this pocket of my time is something I need. Because going to sleep smiling and content with my day and waking up looking forward to it — what more could I ask for?