I said goodbye to two things in the last month: Summer, and the joy of having summers off from my nine-month job as a college newspaper adviser.
Don't get me wrong - I was ecstatic to return to some semblance of a routine. I mean, you can only watch so many seasons of "The Golden Girls" before your mind jumps from merely daydreaming of the sand and surf to seriously considering packing a suitcase and moving to sunny Miami permanently.
But there is one thing I miss about summer: its quiet, unobtrusive presence. Unlike the hectic, 9-to-5 schedule, summer doesn't bombard you with demands from every direction. It doesn't send e-mails to your inbox at lightning speed.
What was so calming about summer, really, was that you had time to think. Calmly. It wasn't that you even had anything earth-shattering to contemplate - though I found myself doing that a few times this summer. It was just the serenity of knowing that a decision about anything - meetings, reports, presentation, what's on the menu for dinner - didn't have to be made. Right. Now.
Sadly, all too often, you find yourself returning to work after a restful, laid-back summer, and before you know it, you're doing too much, piling too much on your plate and just generally biting off more than you can chew.
What happened to summer? It was a time for you. In fact, it was all about you; perhaps the only season where you had permission to be a bit selfish with your time.
Selfish. I'm not sure I care for that word. In fact, I've always cringed when I hear people say, "I feel so selfish for not doing [insert activity here]."
Yes, there are times when being selfish is a bad thing. But aren't there times when being selfish is a positive thing?
When the local pool closes its doors for the summer, it seems you also close off your duties to yourself, too. You stop taking care of yourself and putting your health and well-being at the top of that to-do list.
I'm not a doctor, but I do know enough about the human body to know that this rat-race mentality isn't healthy, either physically or emotionally.
To that end, I made my own little to-do list. It wasn't a list of things to do for something or for someone else. No, no. It was a list just for me. Shocking, isn't it? A list devoted entirely to myself? Some people might even call it ... selfish.
I'll let you be the judge. Some of the items I included on my list:
• Relax at home, work at work. Translation: Do not bring the stress of work home, and don't bring actual work home from work to do ... it'll still be on my desk in the morning.
• Watch something funny every evening. Laughter really does wash all that stress and tension away.
• Play Yahtzee - or a new favorite, Bananagrams - at least five times each week. A Peppermint Patty is also a requirement.
• Learn to lose the guilt when I use the word "no." Don't worry. It's not a bad word. It won't send me into societal banishment.
• Take care of myself physically and emotionally.
Because when you think about it, really think about it, aren't you worth that much love to yourself? If you're so quick to give to others, I say it's time to give back to yourself. What's on your to-do list?
