I(n)balance

by Lauren Roodt
I’m a loser aren’t I? It’s a Friday night and I am staying in. My friends call me the mom of the group. I stay in (too often), I worry when they get too drunk and I say words like “poofy” and “silly nana”.

But honestly, I have a good reason. This week has been a nightmare and the following is going to be even worse. Suddenly my life picks up speed. Why now?! My life reminds me of my Gran’s old Mazda. It was slow on the incline but the minute the peak (mid-year) was reached it accelerated at a rate of knots. That old ducky flew by so fast that you eye hardly registered the white streak the fleeing before you. I’ve been tied to the back of that speeding car door and it’s not stopping until next week Friday. If I’m lucky. Ha!

So here I sit, stuck in my room (am i allowed to say stuck if it’s voluntary?). Again I attempt to learn the six pages of Japanese vocab. Again I think of my sociology essay and again, oh yes, again my thoughts dodge the gaping mouth of Xhosa orals next week which promise to swallow me alive.

Meetings have abruptly become an unwelcome consumer of my time and more and more people seem to demand my attention (I’m not vain). Again, I have to start keeping a diary- an activity that I hate! I loathe being ordered. And once more I am tied to the burdens that rest on my back labelled- “Exams. Advance with caution.”

But, there does seem to be an upside to all this stress. The weekend. A chance to party (boy, I am such a hypocrite), the opportunity to relax and this weekend a special treat... our res awards evening. A night for our friends to exposes each other’s most embarrassing moments. Why do I hear whispers of dirty forty year olds and addictions? I’ll never tell. Haha.

It is with every up-hill that there is a down-hill. Each week of stress brings promise of a weekend. I will not say a weekend of freedom. The rate at which you accelerate down the hill towards your freedom only determines the speed at which you will hit the bottom. My advice... maintain a moderate pace. Do your work consistently and stay in on Friday nights if you can stomach it. When you reach the bottom you will be glad that you have built a cushion of protection.