Ever since I was younger, I was always taught that nothing that I want will be done for me unless I do it myself. I've learned that by experience that this is true and for because of that, I keep striving towards my own goals. This is one of the reasons why I continue to work and work hard at the things I do in my life.
As of right now, I'm a full time college student who works about 40 hours a week at my job. Yes, it's exhausting, but I do it for myself because, like I learned, if I don't do it then nobody will. I've had multiple family members, employees, acquaintances call me out for being "lazy", but no. Let me tell you the truth on something that most people that are older than me don't seem to understand: Times have changed.
To the baby boomers and generation x specifically, this is for you: Don't say to me that I don't work hard because I'm exhausted. Don't tell me that YOU had it worse, because like I've said, times have changed! Our types of work and the different jobs that are out there have evolved. School has become harder for students when receiving their diplomas, which leads to us students dropping out. People like YOU tearing college students down have lead to students giving up. If anything, you should be cheering us on. We're the future for the world. You know you have been here, in our shoes before, so you should understand the situations we get in and should be trying to lift us up.
Don't tell me that because of me being exhausted, it means that I'm lazy. Don't tell me that, "I do this to myself" when I do this to be successful. I'm sorry that some days I don't seem to give my all compared to other days. I'm sorry that some tests I'll fail, some days of work I'll have to not come in in order to take care of my well being. This doesn't give you any right to say I'm any less of a hard worker because sometimes I do this.
A college student like me needs to take care of herself too. Some days I need to say enough is enough. Some days I need to sit around in my pj's, eat a pint of ice cream, watch some House Hunters, and just relax. And for this, it doesn't make me lazy. It doesn't make me any less of a hard worker to take a day for myself. It doesn't make me any more lazy because even after all of this, I'll still have to go back the next day to my same routine of papers, tests, 9 hour shifts, and my solid 5 to 6 hour nights of sleep. We don't have any Saturdays or Sundays to really recharge like you, because those days as well are our work days.
So please respect that we need our days off. Please respect that with some days we'll be more tired than others. Respect that we ARE hard workers. Respect that we just have different priorities with it being a different time than yours. We have a lot of things to handle, including ourselves. Know that we're trying to help ourselves and be the best versions of ourselves, especially for the future we hold. To us, all of this isn't just for nothing. All of this is to insure that we'll provide the best life for ourselves, so we don't have to worry about what we could've done better.
So please just be understanding. It would help a lot more than you know.
