We're a month into school. The hot summer days and patio-season nights are slowly being packed up and stored at the back of our minds.
For some, we haven't found our routine yet.
Our sleep schedule has gone whack, our eating habits consist of one healthy meal and then several hours later, we devour the greasiest fries and sauce-oozing burger that we swore we wouldn't eat yesterday.
There are students that go out more than they stay in, that spend more than they have. We train at the gym on Tuesday but can't find the time or motivation to go from Wednesday to Sunday.
It's that frustrating comeback most students must endure when we make the switch between summer mode to school mode.
It's searching for that physical and mental resilience – to break through the lazy student mindset and get back into the swing of things.
Most students are familiar with the phrase: "I just need to get my life together."
Because we think it's falling apart.
We think the world is against us when things aren't working out the way we want it to.
We look back at the old version of ourselves when we had a better handle on things, when we were organized and consistent with the gym and eating healthy, when we hung out with the right people, when everything seemed so clear.
During the summer, I trained 4-6 times a week at the gym, I held a maintainable social life, a clean-eating lifestyle and listened to health & fitness and business podcasts to regularly stimulate my brain. I was at my prime, but it was mostly because I had less to focus on. Wake up for work, grind out the day, eat dinner, train at the gym, sleep and repeat.
But now, as the school days pass, I've fallen off the healthy bandwagon, and with the growing amount of readings, managing a student budget, remembering to leave the dorm with clean clothes on, and keeping up with friends and social activities – there seems to be... more on my plate.
More deadlines to meet.
More projects to work on.
More people to think about.
More work to complete.
Being surrounded by more means as students, we're being exposed to an overwhelming amount of content that we have no choice but to consume. And before we can even understand and swallow it down, we're given more content to do something with.
It's an underrated opinion but being a student is hard. It's exhausting.
Sometimes, we can barley hold ourselves upright. We've been in the slow lane for the past two or four months and suddenly, everything is happening so fast and midterms are around the corner.
At one point, our life was well-rounded and put together, and now it's on the floor.
The sad part of it all is that when we get tired from the back-to-school rush, we quickly forget.
We forget the friends that stayed up to talk us through our problems.
We forget the family and loved ones that have rallied around us since day one and are still cheering us on.
We forget why we do the things the way we do.
You, as a student, need to know that life is not conspiring against you.
It's rooting for you.
There is one in a million chances a series of events have had to play out for you to be where you are.
It's all about perspective - it's flipping your mindset around, recognizing what you already have, and you will realize how much your world can change, starting with one new thought.
Don't get lost in the hustle, and don't forget how far you've come.
Take a step back and realize this moment is just a blink in time; one bump that is seen as a big deal now but in weeks or months to come, it'll be a 'remember that one time...'.
Remember you are surrounded by an abundance of people have been there for you during the worst growing pains and ugliest heartbreaks. You have a squad of admirers and friends that want to watch you do amazing things and still love you when you can't make those things happen.
These setbacks exist to build your resilience, to test your strength and are opportunities to prove how much you deserve to be here.
Don't let yourself down. You can't let yourself down.
You owe it to your past self who promised you would BE GOOD to your body,
That when everything got difficult, you would strive to be yourself,
That you would always appreciate the people that helped you get this far.
So get back in there, inspire the world with your comeback, and keep searching for that golden routine - you're going to do amazing things this school year!
As students, it's our nature to adapt and feed this continuous hunger for growth, which doesn't necessarily mean it has to happen in the classroom.
Figure out what works for you and what doesn't – being a student is about trial and error beyond the lecture hall:
It's learning what kind of people are worth keeping in your life and weeding out the ones that drain you. It's listening to your body and knowing when to sleep instead of partying it up. It's moving towards your interests but also discovering what you don't want to be. It's being in tune with your true self and following your intuition.
Life is not conspiring against you; life is conspiring for you;
Everything is exactly where it needs to be, keep pushing yourself and have fun with it!
YOU ARE READING
Sad Girl Clapback *Now Available in Amazon*
Non-Fiction*PUBLISHED as 'Tired of Being Tired, Sick of Being Sad' by Azia To *now on amazon* This is the book I wish I had when I was 12, 13, 14 and growing up until I was 20. It's the stuff I wish I told my high school self. *** This is how I feel - these a...
