The time I slept through all the fun holidays

My entire blog post can be summed up into this:

*makes elaborate plans for Halloween*

*realizes Diwali falls on the same weekend*

*has to finish all assignments before that weekend*

*is overwhelmed with stress and feels guilty for cancelling plans with friends*

*cancels everything anyway and sleeps through Halloween*

My parents were surprised when I didn’t go to a party for Halloween and instead chose to stay at home to give out candy. I just had too much to catch up on! With a full-time job and school on the side, I had fallen behind on my readings during midterm season. I knew I would face the fire if I kept pushing these things aside so I decided to just skip Halloween this year and stay at home to answer the door for trick-or-treaters. Since my parents knew I was staying home, they made plans for themselves and left all the candy with me. Now before university, this story would go another way: my parents would leave me alone with this responsibility and I would eat all the candy by myself while hiding out in the TV room.

Post-university life includes having the full intention of doing everything on your plate but not having the energy to follow-through. Sure enough, the story took a different turn: I had a bunch of candy at my door; I wore some Halloween-themed clothing and sat down on my couch to get readings done. I was ready for the trick-or-treaters to come knocking down on my door but the next thing I knew; my dad was waking me up for work the next day.

I felt so bad for all the kids that came to my door and left empty handed. When I was a kid, I always made it a point to remember who didn’t give me any candy so I’m sure the neighborhood kids hate me now.

(I’M SORRY, KIDS.)

This is a tough time for all of us university students. This is when we’re just getting out of midterms only to be thrown into final assignment deadlines, exam preparations, project presentations and maybe even a second round of midterms. This is exactly when we fall behind on our regular readings, we fall behind on our social life and we tend to feel the burnout. The Community Crew just did a self-care week and we all wrote about how we take care of ourselves during midterm season. However, self-care is just as important in the days following your midterms. I tend to get used to running on minimal sleep and coffee and then I burnout all at once.

For those of us who have all these commitments coming up that we blew off until “after midterms are over”, remember, it’s okay to say no and just take time to catch up on your sleep! It’s completely okay to be a little behind on your readings and to take your time catching up with all the backlog that comes with having 3 tests in a week. So yes, I slept through Halloween entirely but the next day, I was able to finish one of my final projects because I had given my body the time to recharge. As a reward, I’m also going to be attending a late Diwali party next weekend to make up for my half-asleep presence at the gathering last weekend. Although I may never fully catch up on my readings until exam period, one thing I’ve gotten out of this experience is that I now have been practicing self-care regularly which helps me function optimally during the high-stress times. And boy, am I going to need it in December!