If only I'd stop and listen. On the Beltway of life, I'm running on empty. Just another conscientious victim of having too much to do without enough time to do it, too stubborn to stop and too tired to continue down a road that may or may not get me where I eventually need to go. I'm tired of being dead tired, pulling seven all-nighters a semester for work and another six to make up for them in play, averaging three hours of sleep a night and staying up 68 hours straight at a time. If my overall lack of sleep ever catches up with me, I'll be unconscious for the next seven months.
Relaxation seems such a distant concept.
Since I was 11 years old, I remember carrying a relatively full plate, always burning the candle at both ends. Normal days started at 4 a.m. with morning swim practices, followed by school, soccer practice, karate lessons and piano rehearsals, until it was time for dinner and homework. Sundays and Wednesdays meant church and youth group, while Saturdays were reserved for swim meets and soccer games. I never learned to hold back then, and such trappings seem to have haunted me throughout high school and college. Never mind regular allotments of food and sleep, once the day begins such distractions must be done away with until you've succeeded in not only getting it all done no matter what, but trying to get it all done well.