So you have an internship, are taking credits, or have a full time job. Or all the above. Basically, you have no down time, for yourself or anyone else. Maybe you live in the same city as your friends for the summer, or maybe you live a plane ride away. Either way, with a full schedule it’s hard to make time for everyone, let alone yourself. And you find yourself denying plans often, way more often than you would like to. Forcing yourself to say , “Sorry, I can’t” to things you normally, or would kill to, say yes to.
But you can’t. It’s as simple as that. It’s not your choice. It’s your responsibility talking. And at this point in our lives, approaching our last year of college or nearing there, it’s the necessary option.
We had previous years to live a little bit more care-free, whether we had one, three, or more. We could disregard the occasional quiz to go out with friends or we could half-ass a discussion post for that integrative course to make it on time to the pregame. But now, we have no choice but to crack down on the important stuff. The internship you have or the classes you’re taking might take a huge role in the rest of your life, and they’re probably not something you can just show up hungover to like that 8 A.M. KIN class.
This isn’t to make this sound like something boring or dreadful or – gasp –the horrible real world everyone keeps talking about. This is awesome. You’re taking huge leaps and bounds toward your amazing future and you’re beginning the final lap. Nothing is more exciting than actually getting a feel for what you’re going to do with the rest of your life and your career.
However, sometimes having a foot in the real world means that you only have one left in the care-free college life world. And sometimes this comes at the price of your social life. It’s so much harder to plan going out on weekdays and sometimes even on weekends when there’s studying, working, or planning to be done. And sometimes it sucks.
Sometimes it sucks when you’re in a group message of your friends when you’re working a double as they plan a beach day or a bar night for everyone. And sometimes it sucks when everyone’s planning to go up north this week when you know you’ll have to put long hours in at the library in order to get an acceptable grade on your summer class exam. And sometimes it sucks when you see the perfect Instagram picture of your friends looking like they’re having the perfect last summer together and you couldn’t make it because you live a little farther away for your internship this summer. And sometimes it really sucks when your friends are planning to get together on someone’s birthday and you have to think of all the strings you’ll have to pull just to spare a few hours to see your favorite people in the world. And sometimes it really, really sucks when you have to say the dreaded, “Sorry, I can’t” and see the faces and texts of disappointment from the people you used to be able to hang out with almost all hours of the day. And it’s the worst when it’s almost assumed that you won’t be able to tag along on this weekend’s plans. Sometimes needing to choose responsible things over fun things to keep your priorities straight really sucks.
But it’s doable. And you won’t regret it in the long run. It might be hard while you’re doing it and you might question why you’re making the sensible decisions that you are – you’re 21, damn*t! But when you’re enjoying your internship and when you get to put it on your resume with letters of recommendation, when you find that moment of “I get it” in your tough summer class during that long night of studying and you see the results in the exam and in your GPA, or that moment during your summer class when you’re learning about something you’re truly passionate about and can apply in the workplace, or even when you get your paycheck. It’s then that you’ll understand and be content with yourself that you’re doing what’s right and what will make you the person you want to be in the future. Because being “the busy friend” is fine when you have the right friends that understand the reason you do the things you do. And the moment you finally do get to celebrate with them will be so much more rewarding. And, odds are, if your friends are anything like you, they’ll think they’re “the busy friend”, too.
