BY AMIELLE CHRISTOPHERSON

The most common conversation I’ve been having lately is, “We should definitely get together soon and catch up! What’s your week look like?…oh, what about next week?…what about before you head home for Christmas?” because life is nonstop chaos?? and we’re all just running around?? and every morning there somehow ends up being 34 new emails we need to answer RIGHT NOW?? and we bought a gym pass that we’re now expected to USE?? and something about mental health and eight hours of sleep???
It all feels like A Lot™ and like we’re all hanging on just to make it to the winter break, which is when we’re telling ourselves we’ll “catch up” and “get it all done” and y’know what? It’s a lie.
Because the chaos never really goes away, it just ebbs and flows and it mutates and looks different as time goes on and we find new and better ways of handling and managing it. Mostly because the chaos is actually just life and life is just chaos and thank you for coming to my philosophical TedTalk.
I’m kind of kidding but not really. For example, the other day, I spent half an hour catching up and talking to someone I hadn’t really seen in weeks because we’ve both been so busy. It was a serendipitous meeting in a stairwell, and while it wasn’t sitting down and having coffee, it was nice. It was taking an opportunity life presented and making the most out of it.
That’s not to say that planning to meet up two weeks from now for coffee is a bad thing, it’s not. But also realizing that we can and should take the moments when they’re offered. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the list of things we need to do or the places we need to be or the goals we’ve set for ourselves that we don’t realize we haven’t just stopped and breathed and existed for awhile.
It also means taking a step back and re-evaluating because not everything needs to be constant chaos. Yes, we’re in university. Yes, there’s a lot of pressure. Yes, we need to make it count. But we also need to make sure we’re here at the end of it all to enjoy what we’ve accomplished and who we’ve accomplished those things with.
So for everyone who feels like they’ve forgotten what their friends look like or that they’re just barely hanging on until the winter break: you’ve got this. Take the days as they come and do what you can and you’re going to be just fine.