During the bustling world and different lives we lead while balancing work, life, school, family, and let’s face it, those 1 am depression sessions while we cry in bed, we need to pause. So many of us worked through earning our High School Diploma and were directly piped into college life with no break. A single summer break where we stressed about bed sheets and our next four academic years planned out, when could we live our young lives?
They say being young is the best, but I don’t believe it’s true anymore. I see people working for days on end with less than 5 hours of sleep each night. They claim it’ll pay off. They claim they need to study to pass the class. They claim that one assignment can decide whether they will have a salary or by-the-hour pay. And maybe they are right. Maybe it will affect our lives, but remember, we’re young. We are Gen Z, the generation of kids that have given up tradition. And yet here we are, not taking the time to take a break like our parents or grandparents.Â
In my first year in college, I learned something so remarkable that it changed my day-to-day life. I took little strolls around my college campus. And while you may think, oh I do that as I go to class. NO. That’s not a stroll. That is you walking with school on your mind.
As you study and you feel your brain start to swell or feel cloudy from the amount of material you are trying to shove in there, put away your things. Stuff them all into your backpack and leave them in your dorm or a close trusted place, and go outside. Put your phone on silent and take a deep breath outside. Close your eyes and focus on the breeze, the sunlight, the birds chirping, and the laughter of your peers, and lower the volume of those voices in your head.Â
Take a moment to live. Take a moment to realize how far you have gotten in life and understand that you deserve this. You deserve every break, every snack, every meal, every minute of sleep, every sip of water, and every breath of air. You deserve it. Do you know why? Because you are doing amazing things. And you will continue to blow us all away.
It’s ok, you deserve it. Take that extra 15 minutes of sleep. Pay for the 8-dollar Starbucks drink. Place that Amazon order for the face masks. Take that extra ice cream from the dining room. Eat your snack while you wait for your professor to arrive. Take those 15 minutes of break time after every hour you study.
The world will continue to spin either way,Â
so pause my Queens and Kings,
take a breath,Â
and look around.Â
It will all be ok.