by Mallory Carlson ’19

“I’m so sorry !! I just realized I told my parents I’d have dinner with them, my dad gets home from working in VA today.” This is, almost to a tee, my standard flaking-out-of-evening-plans text. Sometimes, if I work on a Saturday afternoon and into the evening, I’ll realize that I actually don’t really want to go out for that late dinner I committed to a few days prior. And while I do not always love being “that friend,” at the same time I have learned to appreciate the fact that I know when to listen to myself and decide what I think works best for me. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy going out with friends, because I do (I still consider myself an extrovert despite the general idea of this column), but with everything else I have going on, it’s not necessarily something I want to do all of the time, and I’m okay= with that.

I took on a lot of responsibility in high school. Leading and being in clubs and honor societies, being on a sports team, keeping grades up, not to mention outside of school things like friendships, work, and this year college and scholarship applications (thankfully this is called a column and not a personal statement, otherwise I might not have been able to bring myself to write it). I’m not sorry about the amount of work I did in the past few years, because I’m very happy with where I am and where I’m going, but just maybe I could’ve taken on less in my senior year. I ended up neglecting some responsibilities, which I regret because not only did I not finish what I set out to do but I put people who were depending on me at a disadvantage.

But this year, while I may have struggled somewhat with balancing all I set out to do, I also learned more about taking time to be by myself and do just about nothing — read a book, watch a TV show or movie, and not have to think about the ever-growing list of things I have to do in the near future. And herein lies the value of flaking out on plans — taking that time to be alone and not stress about all the things I could be getting done in that time has really helped me balance all the things I have going on all of the time.

I don’t want to say that you should slack off and check out completely senior year, or cancel every plan you ever make. Instead, find the balance that works for you.