Balance Overdrawn

Do you ever feel like you're committed to a few too many things?  Like you spend more time on extra activities than schoolwork, the reason you're going to college?

The last two days have been hectic, and tomorrow will be just as bad.  This is due to a busy schedule and several events that are normally later in the week that were pushed up to compensate for my absence from campus on Thursday through Saturday because of a trip to Chicago.  Another side effect of this trip is the requirement to have all of my homework for Friday done by tomorrow night.  This means more homework in less time, but I haven't even done very much homework yet because of the crazy schedule.

There are many times where I wonder what it'd be like to be a student at college who isn't involved in any extra-curriculars or other nonsense.  I know they exist, and I must confess that I'm quite envious of their ability to have a "How I spend my day" pie-graph that has plenty of time for academics while still fitting in this thing called free time.  Today, from 5 o'clock to 10 o'clock, I participated in 4 different activities which had nothing to do with academics.  I don't want to list all the things I'm in to brag about how busy I am and how you should feel sorry for me (or do I?), but most of the time I feel like my pie graph has pieces that are hardly worth eating because they just take up space from the more important pieces and suck little bits of the limited taste-goodness from other pieces.  Eventually, with enough things sucking the flavor out of the important parts, the whole pie gets bland and you're basically just eating a dirt pie.  That's a terrible analogy.

Why don't I just quit some things?  Beats me.  GIFT is good, but it makes Sundays not-so-restful.  Intramurals are a "study break", but there are days where homework is a actually a break from everything else.  I like to have something to do, but where's the line between being occupied and being busy?  Even when I'm not bogged down by commitments (like Christmas break), I have a list of things I want to do.  Stupid Dutch Protestant work ethic.  It'd be nice to have a little more time for something that hasn't been scheduled for me or assigned to me by other people.  I know I should take advantage of these chances because I won't have the same opportunities after college when my life will likely consist of almost completely work and time at home after work.  Right now, the thought of coming home at 6 with no obligations sounds like a better deal.

Sometimes I think I would be learning exponentially more if I could read my textbooks and do homework to understand  instead of to get credit.  Sometimes I think that I'd really like to be able to read books for liesure and finish songs I've started writing and create computer programs just for fun.  Sometimes I think I'm not really enjoying college because enjoyment isn't written in the mental schedule I keep in my head.