Time
In college, people said you can only choose two out of three things: studying, sleeping or having a social life. You don’t have time to do them all, so choose wisely.
Five months out of college, I’ve discovered that the triangle has now shifted to work, sleep and work. There are just not enough hours in a day. For the first time in my life, time itself has become my scarcest resource. As busy as I was in college with a part time job and school, everything was in segments and there was always an end in sight. A class you absolutely hated only lasted four months. Summer jobs were just that: one summer. You had clear deadlines and a sense of accomplishment once that part of a year was over. There was recovery time to relax before moving onto the next chapter.
Working a 9 to 5 job has really put time into perspective for me. Forty hours of each week are indefinitely booked, so what am I going to do with the other 128 hours a week? Lately the answer has been sleep. I have a newfound appreciation for parents who work and have kids because I can’t even balance my own work and home life as a single 22 year-old. Some days I’m so busy in the morning that I don’t have time to get ready and drive into the office, and so I end up working from home by default. I usually only know what day of the week it is based on what project is due. March and April are a complete blur; I’m pretty sure they happened.
I went straight from graduating into a full time job and that gap of time I sacrificed is definitely catching up to me. I’ve been trying to plan a vacation this summer to finally catch my breath, but I haven’t even had the time to plan one. It used to be in college that I had the time but not the money. Going from four months of vacation in a school year to three weeks has left me with lots of money but no time.
I know things should slow down in the next few months in my job, but finding a new rhythm every day has been hard. Time has become my new currency and I value it more than anything. I can’t do anything about the time that’s already passed, but I’m trying to make every moment count from now on.
[Photo by Juliette Kibodeaux.]
