By Bex Peterson, Editor-in-Chief
Iâm not very good at relaxing. In fact, Iâve been clinically diagnosed with being terrible at it (in medical fields they call this a âsevere generalized anxiety disorder and adult ADHD,â by the by).
This doesnât mean that Iâm a particularly productive individual. No, Iâve spent many hours lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking of all the things I should be doing. This prevents me from actually enjoying my time offâI feel far too guilty and unproductive when I try reading or watching TV, but if I canât think of a project to do to fill up my time, I end up just sitting around feeling fidgety and terrible.
Iâm far from the only person who experiences this. Many of my friends have told me they have issues relaxing; unable to sleep in or binge watch TV or kick back with a book for a few hours. I personally canât fully relax if I have my phone on meâI always feel like I should be checking it for emails or texts or social media updates, but in a world where weâre expected to essentially be constantly available, putting the phone aside for an afternoon (never mind a full day) seems almost irresponsible.
That drive to be always available, always productive, isnât good for anyone in the long run. Iâm not doing anyone any favours by refusing to give myself time off. No one does their best work when theyâre exhausted; instead of working reasonable hours and taking reasonable time to recharge, I drive myself into the ground until I crash for 18 hour ânaps.â This winds up in me half-assing things I could be whole-assing if my time management was better and I could drop the weird guilty feeling I get if Iâm not working.
The Other Press is moving into monthly publications for the summer semester, which means after exams I will absolutely have more time to myself over the coming weekends. I know plenty of people are struggling with questions of how theyâll spend their break timeâeven if youâre doing a summer semester, you still have a few weeks before classes kick off. Should we fill the time with more work? Seeing friends? Catching up on cleaning and personal projects? Finally getting that Twitch stream or YouTube channel off the ground?
Thereâs absolutely a pressure to constantly be doing even though weâre told, time and time again, that we need to relax every once in a while if we want to live past 30. It doesnât help that part-time and even full-time jobs donât pay nearly enough for many of us to afford to take some time to ourselves. The rise of the so-called âgig economyâ has put us in a position financially where every hour spent doing nothing is money wasted, and weâre expected to balance a few side hustles along with our regular employment to make ends meet. It sucks.
Thereâs really nothing I can say to ease any of these pressures or fix the economy (other than to encourage people to get on board with the socialist agenda and overthrow capitalism once and for all). In the meantime, comrades, I guess Iâll just say that if you need to hear it said, you absolutely have permission to take some time to yourself. Do what makes you happy, get all the sleep you can fit into your schedule, and feel free to tell the world to fuck off for a day so you can play video games for nine hours straight. It doesnât matter if youâve âearnedâ it or notâyou deserve it.
Until next issue,
Bex Peterson
