It's Easy To Forget To Do Nothing

It's only a few weeks into the semester, and already things are getting crazy. Homework is due, extracurriculars are swinging into full schedule and class reading is closing in. The first round of hourlies has already started. Harvard is setting back into its usual punishing routine.

Of course, many of us thrive on the heavy workload or we wouldn't be here. I know I enjoy being frantically busy, even though I complain about it. I work better under pressure. I like having a lot to do. After two or three weeks of summer laziness I get fidgety and cranky. I'd rather push myself by taking on just a little more than I should.

Maybe part of the reason I like being busy, even overly-busy, is that it means I only have to think about what I'm doing now (writing my column late), what I have to do next (read a couple of hundred pages, also late) and how much sleep I can get tonight (not enough).

In this whirlwind of commitments and opportunities, time slips past almost outside of our grasp. Harvard offers us so many things to try--and forces us to complete so many others--that it's easy to forget to occasionally do nothing.

When we don't have enough time to finish everything that is required of us, it's hard to stop.

Just stop.

Remember to breathe.

Thinking is okay, but don't worry.

Relax.

You really don't have to get everything done.

In the midst of everything I am involved in, everything I care about, I need space, just a little space of silence around me every once in a while. I need to remember that there are things more important than classwork, more important than The Harvard Crimson (shh!), even more important than spending time with my friends. I have to spend time with myself.

Before I dive back into the routine, I let all my responsibilities shrink back to their proper size, from the gigantic proportions they had achieved while I worried about them. I stop driving myself for just a little while. I take stock. I settle, and balance.

Okay, so things aren't always magically easier and more manageable when I get back to them. Usually there are a couple of extra hours of work piled up.

But for the space to see myself, I count it a good bargain.