Well, it’s a little bit past the middle of the semester: aka burnout season. For the past month, I’ve been hearing stories of people mentally burning out everywhere: jobs, school, you name it. And recently, I’ve fallen victim to the burnout game as well. You know, that time of year where you don’t feel like doing anything other than binge-watching The West Wing and The Great British Baking Show on Netflix?

Okay, that may be a little too specific, but the idea’s still there. I didn’t really expect that I was going to burn out this early in the year but thinking about it, a lot of things have changed. I’m in a different state, at a new school with completely new people, and I only have two classes a day compared to the five I had in high school. It’s a LOT of change.

There’s also the aspect of not having classes every day. With having Monday/ Wednesday classes and Tuesday/ Thursday classes, I’ve settled into the (admittingly bad) mindset of ‘oh I can do that tomorrow’ and then spend my night watching baseball and Netflix. Let me tell you, this is not what you want to do. The ‘I can do it tomorrow’ mindset falls apart when you have to write a ten-minute long presentation or an eight source annotated bibliography in one night, among other assignments.

But burnouts are normal. People can have them at any time of the year, but they’re especially prevalent around midterm season. Which is also the worst time to burnout, ironically. I’m finally getting out of my burnout that has spanned almost the entire month and I’ve found that some things have helped: first, get off your phone, or your iPad, or whatever distracts you. What I’ve found good to do is physically leave my phone in my room and do my homework in the lounge, because sometimes even the presence of my phone can distract me. Personally, I get distracted trying to study or do assignments in my room. I like to leave and go to the library or some other part of campus just to have a change of scenery.

I hope you all are doing fantastic in school, or in life, and if you are in the middle of burnout, finish that episode of whatever you’re watching and then do your thing.

 

Chloe