Saturday, January 16, 2010

Power Out

I had an interesting experience the other night. As I was sitting at my computer around 10pm, the power went out. The loud hum of my roommate's desktop computer died, and the room went completely black except for the glow of my laptop, now living off battery.

Now I haven't been in a blackout in a while, but this particular one brought with it much more than just darkness. It brought freedom. That's right: freedom. That might seem like a weird thing to come with a blackout - I mean I couldn't really do anything. I couldn't go on the internet because the router was out, couldn't watch tv, couldn't read because it was too dark. BUT, I also couldn't do any work for Mentorship, grad school apps, etc.. and with that came the amazing, guilt-free feeling of being incapable to work on anything. For once I could finally just take a second to just sit back and really just.. think. It was like a huge weight had been temporarily lifted off my shoulders, and I was free from all obligations.

Ah, what a great feeling that was. It was almost ridiculous how happy it made me feel for that hour or so. It was kind of a wake-up call that I'm probably trying to take on too much at once - what with being Program Director for Mentorship, doing W.A.L.L for Unicamp, working as a full-time TA, and applying to grad schools.. So, note to self: After this is all said and done, I need to cut back on the amount of stuff I try to take on at once. I love volunteering and having responsibility, but I'm learning more and more that my "free time" is just as valuable. I need time to just chill, catch up with friends, relax.. something I haven't really had time to do these past couple weeks, and probably won't have a significant amount of until June. *sigh*

Well, lesson learned. I'll just have to suck it up these next 5-6 months. Who knows, maybe there will be another blackout some time. :)