Between jobs, classes and our variety of other social obligations, students are simply too busy. How busy we are directly affects the quality of not just our schoolwork but all of our other interests, passions and goals.
There is so much that I want to accomplish and complete, but, hell, I don’t have the time.
Sure, I’d love to do all the reading for my courses, write better fiction in creative writing, practice more of what I learn in music theory and not miss classes on Friday. I would be overjoyed if I could devote more time to improving the student radio station and work harder at the Review. I wish I could read more books and news, talk to my close friends, stay in shape, go to more Cat Cabs and participate in a club or two.
I might be able to accomplish all of these goals, but, unfortunately, I place a high value on my sleep. I pull one all-nighter out of every week, and that’s enough for me.
Some students barely sleep at all just to scrape by in their work. Sure, I could sleep a lot less and get more work done, but my work would be lower quality, and I’d be exhausted all the time.
A reasonable amount of sleep is not something I or anyone else should have to sacrifice to make it through each week.
But sometimes people don’t think they have a choice. Maybe their professors overwork them; maybe they overload themselves by wanting to do too much or overestimating their abilities.
Perhaps it’s just how society shapes us. We go to school to learn how to be busy, and then we graduate and busy ourselves to death for the rest of our lives. People overwork themselves so much that they began to accept these routines as normal, enslaving themselves to time and schedules.
When we overload ourselves, we end up performing worse in all our commitments and have even less time to devote to ourselves which, contrary to popular belief, is incredibly important.
As one of my respected coworkers posted on Facebook recently: “We’re killing ourselves as college students, writers, good people, professors, baristas, athletes, playwrights … What do we have left for ourselves?”
We should not sacrifice ourselves to our abundant commitments. We must instead challenge ourselves to be in command of our own time and not the other way around. It can be extremely difficult, but it can also be extremely liberating.
I’m tired of going through the motions and rolling with the punches, and I think others are too. We all need to do what is best for ourselves or find out what that means for us as individuals. Parents, advisers, bosses and friends aside, we are all in charge of our own lives.
It often seems like we have no choice, but we should remember that there always is and that no matter what decision we make, it’s never the end of the world.

Braden Smith/Managing Editor