“I’m sorry, I can’t go to _______ with you. I’m busy.”
I’ve been guilty of saying this a lot lately. My friends in the iMPA program are more or less the same. This past week, Kanye West came to town, but I couldn’t go see Yeezus in the flesh on his Pablo tour. I was too busy doing my large laundry list of responsibilities:
- I am taking 17 hours of challenging coursework.
- I am trying to do the iMPA program in 4 years instead of 5.
- This has resulted in 4 exams and a project over the span of 10 days.
- I work customer service at the Perry Castaneda Library (PCL).
- I run a nonprofit that promotes healthy lifestyle choices (shameless plug: come check us out at foodequalitymovement.com)
- I run the club Food Equality Movement Financial Group on campus to raise funds for my nonprofit.
- I write for this blog (yay!)
- I have interviews and decisions about internships to make.
I know that our advisers and older students in the iMPA program warned about how much work the classes will be, but I didn’t really believe it until recently. The classes have an insane workload, and with my other responsibilities, I’ve been…. well, busy.
My friends not in the program or that aren’t as involved as me often ask me:
“Why are you taking on so many things? Do you like pain?”
My honest answer is yes.
I like having so many things to do. Although I might be stressed sometimes because of all my responsibilities (or all the exams that seem to happen at the same time), I love the feeling of being busy. I love the feeling of waking up and knowing that all of my time will be spent on things that I am passionate about.
My accounting classes may be challenging, but I like them. Educating people about healthy lifestyle choices to prevent early Diabetes through my nonprofit may be an uphill battle, but it is one of my passions and extremely gratifying (I was overweight as a child). Writing/blogging is one of my favorite things to do. My interviews/internship decisions will help me further my career. Helping people at my job at the PCL helps me develop my ability to interact with multiple personalities, and I LOVE books. There isn’t a single thing on my list of responsibilities that I regret.
Even though I can’t see a lot of really cool artists perform, it’s okay. I don’t really mind that much. I would actually much rather commit myself to my commitments. It’s not that I don’t love concerts and fun, it’s just that I love my responsibilities more.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m busy.