Stop the glorification of busy

You could think of this post as a mini campaign, a plea for change, another one of my attempts to solve world peace.  However you see it, I hope that after reading it you consider to help stop the glorification of busy.  Some people thrive in busyness and some people, like myself, just don’t.  When our society glorifies multi tasking and overbooked schedules it’s hard to believe that not being busy is okay.  I cannot even count the number of times I have felt guilty for taking an hour of free time to do what I please while everyone else is running around cramming as much as they can in to the short twenty four hours that make up a day.  Believe me, from high school through my first two years of college I packed my day with as much time as I could for friends, homework, class, meals, meetings, work, dance rehearsals, more homework, and sometimes a bit of sleep.  I’ve been there, done that, and know that it’s not for me anymore.

I’m not saying that everyone needs to drop everything they’re doing and live a less busy life, although it’s worth a shot if you ask me.  I’m just saying that its not a competition.  We don’t need to “out busy” any one else.

When I first started writing this blog post, I had all intentions to convince everyone to slow down and stop overbooking, but who am I to tell you what to do?  Like I said, some people thrive in their busy lives.  But perhaps you could ask yourself, do I want to be this busy with overlapping meetings, incomplete time spent with friends and family, and almost zero time to relax and be alone, or is this what our never stopping, multitasking society has decided for me?

Stop the glorification of busy.  We all have twenty four hours in a day, but you can choose how you want to spend them.  I tried to keep this post less of a rant and more of something to think about, but my I am going to rant for one sentence and that is it.  If you do choose to be busy, don’t complain or brag about it because its not a competition. Stop the glorification of busy.

Stop

I was waiting in line to fill up my water bottle yesterday when the girl in front of me turned around and saw that I was waiting.  “Oh, sorry!” she said.  “Don’t worry about it,” I replied.  But, what I really wanted to say was: What are you sorry for?  You’re sorry that you were thirsty?  You’re sorry that you decided to fill up your water bottle at this drinking fountain too?  STOP.

Stop apologizing for “looking so bad today.”

Stop apologizing for eating so much or not enough.

Stop apologizing for not responding to a text message quick enough.

Stop apologizing for going to bed early.

Stop apologizing for staying in on a Friday night.

Stop apologizing for being you.

If we feel the need to constantly justify ourselves to others, how will we ever accept ourselves for who we truly are?

Love, someone that’s sick of ranting

Well, I have now typed and proceeded to delete this first sentence about 20 times now.  I would say that this blogging thing is off to a great start…Here it goes anyway:

If you know me at all, you have probably heard one of my rants about “society” (I’m a Sociology & Anthropology major, I can’t help that I see the world in a completely different way than most).  But, just incase you have never been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of these rants, I usually start by talking about how fed up I am with the media’s influence on body image, which leads to my frustration with the culture at St. Olaf and it’s wear and tear on one’s mental health, and then ends with either a jab at how social media is to blame for all of this or how sad I am that so many people suffer from so much self-hate and lack of self-confidence.  Well I’m sick of ranting.  I want to DO something.

So I began to brainstorm.  How was I, a junior at St. Olaf College in the middle of nowhere (aka Northfield, MN), going to make a difference?  As much as I wish I could solve world peace and fix every single thing I see wrong with this world we live in, I can’t.  So I have decided to start small.  Very small.

I’m not here to give advice.  I’m not going to offer solutions to every problem I see.  I just want to inspire.

I want to inspire everyone to practice self-love and self-acceptance.  I want to inspire people to slow down and  find those little moments of happiness that do in fact exist among the chaos in our lives.  If I could inspire just one person out of the five people that read this blog (Hi mom!)  that would make this all worth it in my mind.  My dream? That that one person would inspire others to live a healthier and happier life.  Perhaps they would then inspire their friends and their friends would inspire their families and eventually everyone would be little easier on themselves, enjoy the little things in life, and maybe, just maybe, I would solve world peace.  A girl can dream, right?

So, enough with all of the fluffy, happy, rainbow, and unicorn details of my dreams.  How do I plan on doing this exactly? I’m going to share my own journey by sharing things that inspire me, with the hope that they will inspire you too!  After all, it’s more about the journey than the destination.

Well, I did it.  My first blog post.  I hope you continue to check back and see what this blog has in store because I am also curious of what this blog will turn out to be.