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Thoughts from a ‘Busy’ Person

It’s getting close to “that season.” The season where everything I have put off doing all semester begins to loom ominously. The season where I begin to feel that I should be doing lots of things all at once.

The problem is, I can’t do all of those things at one time. This leads to a horrible “busy feeling” in the pit of my stomach. I know I’m the cause of it, but I still don’t like it.

I don’t think I am alone in this feeling — I imagine that lots of students are beginning to feel “the crunch.” I also imagine there is a significant uptick in coffee consumption.

This morning I woke up and thought, “Why is there so much stuff to do?!”

Then I had the horrible realization that I signed up for this life. The fact that I have oodles of things to write and study for is completely and totally my fault. I asked for the late nights and limited sleep. A crushing blow dealt by personal responsibility.

And then I had a realization: I don’t really need to do anything. I’m arbitrarily busy, but if I don’t get that paper written on time, does it really matter? I mean, my grade might suffer a little bit. But in the grand scheme of things, my grades don’t really matter that much, do they? I mean, in roughly 80 years, I will more than likely be dead and just a memory for a few people.

So now, instead of feeling busy, I’ve been walking around in a haze of blissful serenity. I would be stopping to smell the flowers, but they aren’t currently in existence. I would be feeding the pigeons too, but they aren’t on campus either. So I’ve settled for soaking in the feeling of complete and utter freedom, a complete lack of hectic business. I have achieved nirvana…

I mean, sometimes you just gotta let go and float, man. You gotta stop worrying about doing and just be. Like a rock, or a flower, or a tree. They don’t do, they just be.

OH MY GOD! I now have whiplash from snapping back to “reality” so quickly. Excuse me while I go get a coffee and hack out a paper.

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