I’m sorry I cannot hang out tonight. I am busy.
In college, that sentence gets thrown around constantly. The word busy gets said so often throughout the day it has becomes almost meaningless.
As a twenty-one-year-old senior with two jobs, five classes and a position on the student activities committee, as well as a boyfriend and friends, I am no stranger to how often that word gets said, even out of my own mouth.
When I look at my planner, (which has been a godsend this year), I barely see any blank spaces. Even on the weekends, the small squares are filled with cramped writing that says things such as “Meeting at 7:00” or “Paper Due.” The tiny gibberish that has overtaken my once pristine planner is a telltale sign of how “busy” my life is.
But what does busy mean? Am I too busy to hang out with the friend I haven’t seen in months? Am I too busy to go to that yoga class I have been saying I would go to for forever? Am I too busy to even watch Scandal on Thursday night with my roommates?
The answer is no. Busy is an excuse. As a college kid, it is simpler to complain about being busy than to try and reorganize life to fit everything in. When I come home after a “busy” day, I find myself complaining to anyone in my apartment who will listen about how busy my day was, but yet again, I chose to work two jobs and plan Senior Week. I chose to pick up that extra shift at my internship. I chose to be busy, but why?
The culture of being busy exists because of the competitive workforce that each and every college student will be entering into after graduation. Each commitment I make is driven by the opportunity to add it to my resume. My staying busy is driven by the anxiety of not achieving that dream job after graduation because I did not participate in enough extra-curriculars, or get a great enough recommendation from my internship. So this begs the question, “What happens if we say no?”
If we say no to the business of college life, will we automatically lose out on that job opportunity?
The answer, yet again, is no. If you choose to say no to that extra shift at your internship, or say no to hosting your third business club mixer of the week, you will not automatically lose out on your dream job. What is more important here is what you will gain, which is precious time with your friends or even better time to relax by yourself.
As a senior, it has taken me four years of college to understand this concept and why it is important. The hourglass on my college career is slowly, but surely, running out of sand. In a little over a month, I will be pushed out into the real world, and the time I spent with my friends during college will be some of my most precious moments of college. Therefore, saying no to being busy means that I will grant myself more time to spend with them before the inevitability of graduation arrives. Even more, saying no will also grant me the opportunity to spend time by myself without the stress of a real world job and real world pressures pressing down on me.
So just a piece of advice from a graduating senior: Take time to say no being busy in college life every once in a while, and enjoy the time you have in college to be with your friends or even by yourself. Before you know it, the business of the real world will become something a lot more inescapable.