A Workaholic's Perspective on Relaxation

Does your life leave you enough time to relax?

Throughout the past few semesters, my school and after school schedule has been hectic. Between constant sports practice, academic work, clubs, and extracurricular commitments, I’d often find myself pushing my sleep schedule later to accommodate the heightened workload. Weeks at a time would blur by in routines, weekends spent catching up on sleep and assignments.

If my life were organized into a Google Calendar, there would only be one six-hour part of the day devoid of events, between one and seven AM: sleep. Despite this hectic schedule, I rarely felt as though I were overworking myself, nor did I feel as though I had no time to relax. Perhaps I am a workaholic, but there was an enriching essence within the work itself that motivated me to continue doing all the different activities I was doing. Over time, the work stopped feeling like work, and activities themselves became the breaks when I stopped taking them too seriously.

Take distance running, for example. From June to November, January to May, I train 30 to 40 miles per week. Practice tends to be two hours after school, five days a week, and I often run on the weekends as well. Running has certainly been a large time commitment. But after a long day at school, spending two hours outdoors with my closest friends is an activity that I look forward to. The practices are often difficult, but the time spent working out my body and socializing with my friends makes it a cornerstone of my routine. It has become a time to relax, even though many may believe that running is the opposite of relaxing.

At first glance, my life does not offer many waking hours for relaxing. But that, in itself, doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t have time to relax, or that my daily schedule is inherently stressful. When I’m running, I’m taking a break from academic work and the assignments on my computer screen. My drive to and from school is an opportunity to appreciate the suburban scenery outside. My walk to and from my car is another opportunity to do the same.

I view activities not as burdens but as opportunities, spaces in which I have the freedom to choose what to commit myself to. Each activity has its unique traits and communities, creating a sphere of influence that I bounce in and out of every day. As my commitments increase, so too do the communities I involve myself in. More perspectives. More friends. More slices of life.

The pursuit of different lived experiences and perspectives has certainly led me to commit to many more activities than a typical schedule should be built for. However, I have adapted to discover ways to relax within these activities, and the activities have been so rewarding that I am okay with not having as much unstructured time on my hands. With an appropriate level of stress comes the excitement of challenge, an excitement that has enriched my life for the past few years.

After high school, the activities and commitments I involve myself in will certainly change. I’m excited to see what direction my future self will go, and I hope to take with me the delicate balance of involving myself in many different communities while keeping my day-to-day life exciting and at an appropriate level of challenge. While it is a daunting task to start anew, I think I’ll have a lot of fun doing it. After quitting track, maybe I’ll pick up rowing. Maybe I’ll continue developing my photography and videography projects. My high school experiences have prepared me well, and now it’s time to write the next chapter.