Life is Not An Emergency

What We're All Feeling...

September is a month of new beginnings. And this time, I am starting to appreciate this more than ever before.

Summer is wonderful, I mean it really can be quite glorious. Late nights, late mornings, chilling with friends and enjoying new experiences. What happens? In those 6-8 weeks off school, you gradually get weaned off your normal school routine.

And you start to live like a free person. Why? Because you can. For the most part, there are no demanding schedules, the piles of homework have been burnt to the ground and things feel pretty good.

Living like a free person

It is so easy to get used to that life. To get comfortable. And sometimes it seems that if that you do not think about the S Word (school), you do not say it, and you avoid it, then it will not happen.

The summer will be everlasting, and the warm breezy nights will go on and on.

Erm...ok so September?!

Then September the First arrives. Your alarm screams and screams till you sit up and hit it. You are shocked back to reality. Literally sometimes. As soon as your alarm starts to sing that annoying tune (that you haven't heard for 2 months now), you realize you are back to business.

The world expects you to adopt your long-forgotten routine of early mornings, and evenings filled with homework-doing.

And, yes you will get homework in the first week of school. Don't even try to dodge it. It will be there and your first unit test will be round the corner in a few weeks. Because it is school, and the things we don't quite enjoy about school tend to stay the same.

So, you know, all this got me thinking.

It got me thinking about all the work we are sort of 'pressured' to do. Not by one particular person, because 'the pressure' is something we all experience. Now, I don't just mean school. It is kind of a combination of everything. The secular and the non-secular. Balancing it all together in the 24 hours each of us has to use everyday.

Sometimes, I feel (and I know it can't just be me), that if I don't get certain tasks done, then a bomb is going to explode. Right after the task manager of my brain explodes.

But here's the thing. Here is the revelation if you like:

Life is not emergency.

Who gets to decide for our routine to be this way?? For us to get up early in the morning, work all day (not always satisfying work), then cram in more work when we get back. With absoultely zero time left at the end of the day for what we really love, like spending time with those we love.

For me, it all just seems so unnatural. Kind of crazy, that we humans lead ourselves into such emptiness.

But that is the way of the system. What ya gonna do?

Well, I don't think it has to stop there.

After all, every time we do something we all make a conscious choice. How much am I going to give of myself? Am I going to allow this be a stressful situation? When am I GOING TO STOP?

AND the SKY Will Not Fall

The number 1 question that I tend to ask myself is

What is the worse that can happen?

I allow myself to take a break for the next few hours, because I am tired and worn and out, and for goodness sake I want to do something that's actually satisfying instead of just ticking the BORING boxes.

And a lot of the time I do give myself a break. So...

The next day does the sky fall down?

No.

Does my life turn upside down for those moments I choose to look after my health and well-being?

No.

Do I fail school because I choose to take a break from homework and relentless studying?

No.

Many times, things aren't as bad as we think. Life isn't always an emergency, and it is OK to just step out of the path that has been carved for you. To take a nice 5 minute walk, and enjoy the scenery. (Interpret that how you will).

Today was one of those days. Yes, I will have a break, and tomorrow will still come and go.

All of the worries I have this week, will not even exist this time next week. So while pile on tomorrow's worries too?

Here is the point, friends: Sometimes you just have to take the time to stop, think and breathe.

Life is not an emergency;

It was never meant to be.