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Adjusting Your Schedule Without School



It hasn't even been a week since the semester ended and I'm already entirely out of sorts. When the semester is in session, I constantly complain about work and having too much on my plate. I don't like going to classes, I don't like stressing over the workload. I spend the whole semester wishing it was over, essentially. But now that I don't have school for the summer, I feel a bit lost. Where does all of my free time go now? I still work, sure, but what do I do with my hours upon hours allotted for homework, reading for classes, studying, writing papers? Where does that time go? How am I supposed to spend it now?

This wasn't an issue when I was living at home. I had friends at home I could hang out with and knew I at least had three family dinners a week to attend. But now I'm in Cleveland, three and a half hours away from home with my roommates and friends here gone for the summer, or at least for the most part. How am I meant to pass the five or six hours that I have free after work. Or even worse, how am I supposed to spend an entire day off of work?

Filling up free time is a harder task than I thought it would be, especially when the weather hasn't been fantastic. Without schoolwork, I feel like I need to get out of the house. Class and work always at least got me out for a few hours, but if there's a day where I have neither of those things...what am I meant to do? It's almost like class work was my roadmap during the semester and now I'm wandering aimlessly around trying to find my way. I don't want to spend my whole summer lazing around in a daze because I feel like there's nothing else to do.

Yes, there's always Netflix and movies and what not. I could blog, I could watch Youtube. I could do a lot of things in the safety of my apartment, but that's what I've been doing and it's getting stale already. I am not a sit on the couch for hours type of person. I can marathon things if I'm doing work or if I'm with a friend, but by myself with no other distractions? It makes me feel like my soul is deteriorating. I am not a sit around type of person, I am a "you need to do something right this moment, young lady" type of person. So how do I rectify this?

I need to get out of the house. I need to take walks to the lake, to the pier, just for half an hour downtown to get a coffee. I need to start exploring Cleveland solo, finding new places rather than hitting the same digs continuously. I need to start running around, find a park or something where I don't have to worry about traffic lights and stopping at every street corner downtown. I need to remember to take advantage of the time that I do have when people are in Cleveland so I can spend time with them while I can! Really, I think the key to adjusting my schedule is to remember that there is a schedule to adjust. Because it's easy to fall into a pattern of nothingness if I don't at least force myself a little to break the habit. There's absolutely nothing wrong with relaxing (which is another thing I need to tell myself), but that means there has to be something wrong with too much relaxing, right? Right? Or is that just my hyper type-A mind telling me so?

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