Wednesday, November 10, 2004
From the Sideline
Hi everyone! How are you doing? I'm really enjoying my time off smack in the middle of what's supposed to be a crazy-busy semester like any other. You know that e-mail I sent out to my professors doesn't seem like something so novel and daring, but while I was writing it, it sure did. It took me so much guts to just admit to myself, "OK, kid, you need to chill out for a bit," and the actually DO SOMETHING about it.
My professors were all understanding and I don't have to hand in ANYTHING this week, which would be a lot. Today I didn't touch school books. It felt amazing. I finally got the chance to invest some time in myself. I had an appointment at the career advising offices where I learned that I was an INFP -- the rarest Myer's Brigg's personality type, which only 3-4% of people in our society are. It's cool, too, because I would NEVER let a test determine who I am. I usually scoff at those kind of tests, but they offered me to take it. I did, and they interpreted my results and we talked about it. And I was like, "wow, this is me, and this, for once feels so right." And they were like, "wow, this is really nice, we almost never get students who feel right about their test results."
Then I went to work a little bit. Yeah, it's tough being a broke college student. But since I'm on "vacation" I left an hour early. Then an early dinner, a 2 hour nap (that was a mistake, I was really going for 30 minutes). Then pie and an hour chat with my neighbors. Then taking care of my tickets to fly home for winter break. Then putting some thought into my schedule for next semester. Then writing thank you notes to my professors for letting me chill a little. Hmmm, looking at this paragraph maybe I did accomplish a lot. But none of that would have happened if I were working on nasty problem sets or other assignments.
So this is it. The good stuff. This is what it feels like to take some control in my life. FINALLY, I'm not letting course syllabi and homework assignments dictate my life. For once, I'm running purely on my own schedule. Y'all, I'm looking and feeling fine from the sidelines, LOL. All I need now is a banana milkshake, lots of sun, and a nice beach.
It's scary though to step out and to watch all the other people running and racing as fast as they can into something unknown. I'm just glad I had the chance and the strength to stop, reflect, and remember what my priorities are... and yeah, maybe I come first.
My professors were all understanding and I don't have to hand in ANYTHING this week, which would be a lot. Today I didn't touch school books. It felt amazing. I finally got the chance to invest some time in myself. I had an appointment at the career advising offices where I learned that I was an INFP -- the rarest Myer's Brigg's personality type, which only 3-4% of people in our society are. It's cool, too, because I would NEVER let a test determine who I am. I usually scoff at those kind of tests, but they offered me to take it. I did, and they interpreted my results and we talked about it. And I was like, "wow, this is me, and this, for once feels so right." And they were like, "wow, this is really nice, we almost never get students who feel right about their test results."
Then I went to work a little bit. Yeah, it's tough being a broke college student. But since I'm on "vacation" I left an hour early. Then an early dinner, a 2 hour nap (that was a mistake, I was really going for 30 minutes). Then pie and an hour chat with my neighbors. Then taking care of my tickets to fly home for winter break. Then putting some thought into my schedule for next semester. Then writing thank you notes to my professors for letting me chill a little. Hmmm, looking at this paragraph maybe I did accomplish a lot. But none of that would have happened if I were working on nasty problem sets or other assignments.
So this is it. The good stuff. This is what it feels like to take some control in my life. FINALLY, I'm not letting course syllabi and homework assignments dictate my life. For once, I'm running purely on my own schedule. Y'all, I'm looking and feeling fine from the sidelines, LOL. All I need now is a banana milkshake, lots of sun, and a nice beach.
It's scary though to step out and to watch all the other people running and racing as fast as they can into something unknown. I'm just glad I had the chance and the strength to stop, reflect, and remember what my priorities are... and yeah, maybe I come first.
