Burnt Out

Out of Order sign on woman's forehead

Many students face this “burning out” problem. One of the biggest time commitments of college, other that classes and school work, are extracurricular activities. Being involved in other clubs and sports are what makes college enjoyable! You do things you love and are interested in, meet new people, have something other than work to do, and have fun! However, they can also cause a lot of stress. For me, I’ve always been involved outside of school work whether it be in sports (tennis and horseback riding) or music groups (Madrigals and musicals), or other academic clubs. I was very busy in high school and I knew I wanted to continue that when I went to college. I honestly believe I will do better in classes when I’m involved in other things. But the problem if knowing when enough is enough.

A lot of students, myself included, wanted to get involved in many clubs as soon as we got to college, the problem with this is picking which activities to stay in and not to stretch ourselves too thin. I tried not to sign up for too many activities during the Involvement Fair at the start of the semester, and I didn’t. However, I still find myself having no time to relax. At this moment I am involved in The Singing Lions (3 rehearsals a week), Equestrian Team (lesson and meeting plus extra mandatory activities on weekends), Pre-Vet Club (1 meeting), Springfield (1 meeting), The Globe (1 meeting plus extra events), and I just joined Music Therapy Club (1 meeting plus optional performances). Maybe I did not listen to my own advice and continue not to listen since I have a callback tonight from auditioning for a Thespians show on Tuesday.

I can imagine many other students have the same problem as me, being involved in many activities that make them happy but finding they may be involved in too many things. It takes great time management skills and a lot of self-control to stay on top of everything and give 100% to it all. Some people can do it, and others may have to cut back. I believe students should absolutely be involved, but watch out for getting burnt out.

One thought on “Burnt Out

  1. Hang in there! I know it’s super easy to get overwhelmed with all the activities going on but it’ll definitely get better. One of the most important things is to take your own advice and really try to focus only on the things that are most important to you. Obviously that’s really hard to do since you’re only involved in things that you enjoy, but I think it would really help if you came in with a plan next semester to focus only on three activities. It will make the time that you spend doing them more meaningful and save you a lot of stress down the line. For now, though, just make sure that you’re able to focus on your schoolwork; staying up until 4 AM and losing points in a class definitely isn’t worth going to a club meeting where they probably won’t talk about that much important stuff anyways. We’re almost at the end of the semester, you can do it!

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