This past week and a half has been super tough. After four days of on boarding, I finally started my internship last Friday. School started on Tuesday. I had planned to do all my reading Monday, but my boss asked me to come in and work. The bookstore was sold out of a book I needed. My friend unexpectedly showed up in town from Boston and wanted to plan her wedding. Life started piling up way too fast- the good, the bad, and the ugly. I started to feel really overwhelmed. I felt like I didn't have enough time for anything, let alone the next five things that were headed my way. As much as I wanted to crawl under the covers and hide from the world in my bed, I knew I couldn't.
Sometimes the best you can do is just keep going. I started Monday with a gigantic coffee so I could put a smile on and kick ass at work. No matter how tired I was, or how concerned I was with getting my reading done, I want this internship to turn into a real job so I need to impress my boss. As worried as I was about school, the best I could do was take advantage of my hour long lunch break by reading my casebook in the lunchroom. I needed to just be in the moment and give the contracts and assignments in front of me the best effort I could. All I could do was keep on reading, scanning, and emailing until the clock hit 5.
As soon as I got off work I went home and spent hours reading for my classes the next day. When I couldn't read anymore I went to bed and woke up early to make coffee and finish reading before my first class. I wanted to watch tv, finish reading my novel, shop for new shoes - but I knew that I couldn't. As long as the cases were, I just had to keep on going. And when I had four classes that day, I knew that I had to keep on. When my friend wanted to get together and talk about her wedding, I knew I needed to show up and be there for her. As stressed as I was, it's more important to be a friend. Sometimes even the good things are just another thing on your plate that needs attention. I needed to remind myself to appreciate our time together.
Life isn't always easy. You don't always get to schedule everything and can't always anticipate or account for the unexpected. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just show up, put a smile on, and keep on going. But here's hoping that next week slows down some!
How do you deal with being over scheduled and overwhelmed? All I could manage this week was showing up and trying to do my best. I fell short plenty of times, but I kept on going!
No comments:
Post a Comment