Burnout
Life's a marathon, not a race...Finally, summer’s coming soon! I can’t wait for my favorite time of the year. Just imagining what I could do makes me smile. Vacations, the beach, road trips, adventures, golf – these are just some of the things I’m gonna make sure I do this summer. I guess I better get my summer gear and sun block ready.
However, weeks before summer, I’m already experiencing a different kind of burn. Nope, this has nothing to do with the sun nor my skin. What I’m talking about is me currently experiencing burnout. To be more specific, as defined, I’m currently suffering from psychological exhaustion and diminished efficiency resulting from overwork or prolonged exposure to stress.
So much for one of my new year’s resolution of managing my time better. Right now I’m barely hanging on. I can’t describe how exhausted I am. I have a bad case of cough and colds, but never took any rest. When I discuss something in front of my class, I run out of breathe due to severe nasal congestion. At times I feel like passing out, and sometimes I wish I would, so that I could rest and will have a reason to be absent.
Let me enumerate what parts of my body hurt: Nose, sinuses, throat, stomach, head, knees, back, and sometimes chest. I should probably see a doctor, right? Weird thing is, I don’t have fever or anything, although I get the occasional chills at night.
Well, actually, my current health is just part of my burnout. A bigger part of it is my responsibilities. First, being a teacher, I need to submit my students’ midterm grades as soon as possible. They’re actually ready, but there are still a few students who had submitted some requirements just recently. Aside from this, I have loads of exams to check, papers to read, and programming assignments to evaluate. Then I still have to prepare for my class tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on. You get the idea.
Next is law school. I am way behind in our readings. I was so happy yesterday that the assigned reading was just one chapter. So I went to the library to study, only to find out that the chapter was an inch thick! Once I started reading, my head ached so much that I couldn’t even open my eyes without feeling any twitches. I had to go home and sleep. I slept all afternoon and missed classes.
Finally, let’s talk about extracurricular commitments. I had to work on the 2006 Grand Law Debate poster layout and TV advertisement. I had to stay up all night last Friday to finish it. And although it was haphazardly done, I think it was still presentable enough. I exerted a lot of effort on it, only to find out that the print ad must be in black and white. Back to the drawing board I guess.
The SG Elections is coming up and as a student, I am still actively supporting a certain political party. Like some of my responsibilities when I was still an undergrad before, I was in charge of information and media. That involves flyers, posters, streamers, IDs, and lots of other stuff. I had to take pictures of the candidates, encode their CVs, and design other election paraphernalia.
Yesterday alone, after sleeping the whole afternoon and waking up late last night, I received more than 10 text messages concerning some things I had to do: “Klase na bai…”, “Can you bring your camera for a picture-taking session tonight?”, “Where is my certificate of candidacy?”. “Are you done with the streamer lay-out?”, “Can we attach a pop-up banner in your website?”, “Sir, what’s the coverage of our exam tomorrow?”, “Can you look for a good printer and have our old one fixed?”, “Is 300K pixels good enough?”, “Just start working on the PHP side of the project”, “Can I borrow (something) for (someone)?”, “Please bring the envelope containing the files…”, “(Someone) couldn’t find the CD, kindly burn another one for me.”, etc. And these do not include the e-mails and personal messages I get, complaining or suggesting something for my website. Sometimes I just prefer to turn off my phone and not check my e-mail. If it was possible, I would like to sleep for like a week or so.
These are just some of the pressures I feel right now. Sooner or later I feel like I’d probably break down. And this is not just a one-time thing. This is actually constant. My weekend is already filled with commitments, and this is after I had already turned down something which could have made me earn a couple of hundred dollars or so. Next week would be the same, and it will probably get worse.
So, one may ask why I was still able to write this. Well, this is just a spontaneous thing. I’m actually checking papers and working on some bugs in my website. I just took a 10 minute break to release some of the pressure by just typing whatever was on my mind.
That and the thought that summer’s coming fast. Probably then I could take a well-deserved break.
However, weeks before summer, I’m already experiencing a different kind of burn. Nope, this has nothing to do with the sun nor my skin. What I’m talking about is me currently experiencing burnout. To be more specific, as defined, I’m currently suffering from psychological exhaustion and diminished efficiency resulting from overwork or prolonged exposure to stress.
So much for one of my new year’s resolution of managing my time better. Right now I’m barely hanging on. I can’t describe how exhausted I am. I have a bad case of cough and colds, but never took any rest. When I discuss something in front of my class, I run out of breathe due to severe nasal congestion. At times I feel like passing out, and sometimes I wish I would, so that I could rest and will have a reason to be absent.
Let me enumerate what parts of my body hurt: Nose, sinuses, throat, stomach, head, knees, back, and sometimes chest. I should probably see a doctor, right? Weird thing is, I don’t have fever or anything, although I get the occasional chills at night.
Well, actually, my current health is just part of my burnout. A bigger part of it is my responsibilities. First, being a teacher, I need to submit my students’ midterm grades as soon as possible. They’re actually ready, but there are still a few students who had submitted some requirements just recently. Aside from this, I have loads of exams to check, papers to read, and programming assignments to evaluate. Then I still have to prepare for my class tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and so on. You get the idea.
Next is law school. I am way behind in our readings. I was so happy yesterday that the assigned reading was just one chapter. So I went to the library to study, only to find out that the chapter was an inch thick! Once I started reading, my head ached so much that I couldn’t even open my eyes without feeling any twitches. I had to go home and sleep. I slept all afternoon and missed classes.
Finally, let’s talk about extracurricular commitments. I had to work on the 2006 Grand Law Debate poster layout and TV advertisement. I had to stay up all night last Friday to finish it. And although it was haphazardly done, I think it was still presentable enough. I exerted a lot of effort on it, only to find out that the print ad must be in black and white. Back to the drawing board I guess.
The SG Elections is coming up and as a student, I am still actively supporting a certain political party. Like some of my responsibilities when I was still an undergrad before, I was in charge of information and media. That involves flyers, posters, streamers, IDs, and lots of other stuff. I had to take pictures of the candidates, encode their CVs, and design other election paraphernalia.
Yesterday alone, after sleeping the whole afternoon and waking up late last night, I received more than 10 text messages concerning some things I had to do: “Klase na bai…”, “Can you bring your camera for a picture-taking session tonight?”, “Where is my certificate of candidacy?”. “Are you done with the streamer lay-out?”, “Can we attach a pop-up banner in your website?”, “Sir, what’s the coverage of our exam tomorrow?”, “Can you look for a good printer and have our old one fixed?”, “Is 300K pixels good enough?”, “Just start working on the PHP side of the project”, “Can I borrow (something) for (someone)?”, “Please bring the envelope containing the files…”, “(Someone) couldn’t find the CD, kindly burn another one for me.”, etc. And these do not include the e-mails and personal messages I get, complaining or suggesting something for my website. Sometimes I just prefer to turn off my phone and not check my e-mail. If it was possible, I would like to sleep for like a week or so.
These are just some of the pressures I feel right now. Sooner or later I feel like I’d probably break down. And this is not just a one-time thing. This is actually constant. My weekend is already filled with commitments, and this is after I had already turned down something which could have made me earn a couple of hundred dollars or so. Next week would be the same, and it will probably get worse.
So, one may ask why I was still able to write this. Well, this is just a spontaneous thing. I’m actually checking papers and working on some bugs in my website. I just took a 10 minute break to release some of the pressure by just typing whatever was on my mind.
That and the thought that summer’s coming fast. Probably then I could take a well-deserved break.
Labels: burnout, law school, work
posted by radar at 7:16 PM
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