Since college has started, I have found myself with less and less time to do all of the things I want to do. Between classes, clubs, and friends, there simply isn’t enough time in the day to accomplish everything I set out to.Â
Before school started, one of the main concerns I had was that I wouldn’t have enough time to read. As someone who typically reads a book nearly every week, I had my worries going into the school year that I wouldn’t be able to keep up this routine. Reading is something that is extremely important to me. I read as a way to relax and escape, and losing this hobby wasn’t an option. It became clear to me at the beginning of the semester that I wouldn’t be able to read as much as I used to, though.
There were a multitude of different reasons as to why I couldn’t read as much as I usually would, from being too tired, feeling guilty about all of the other work I could be doing, and simply not wanting to put that much brain power towards something. I would often find myself busy throughout the entirety of the day and would come back home completely exhausted. The thought of even picking up a book seemed like too much work. It wasn’t just exhaustion though. Anytime I even reached for a novel thoughts of all of the reading I could be doing for class went through my mind. I felt guilty reading books for fun rather than the ones I should be reading for class. Lastly, the act of reading felt like something too difficult to comprehend, when it used to be fun and easy. I would read the first few lines of a book and immediately go on TikTok because that didn’t take any brain power. I could just zone out and scroll for hours.Â
All of these things combined made it so that for the first part of the semester, I didn’t read a single book. I quickly realized that if I really wanted to read, I needed to stop thinking so much about it. I needed to stop putting pressure on myself to read certain books or feel like I had a quota to reach by the end of the year.Â
After I stopped thinking about how much I was reading and started thinking about the fact that I just wanted to read, things got a lot easier. It didn’t matter if I was reading 100 pages a day or merely 5. I was still getting the chance to do something I loved. I think by easing the pressure of feeling the need to read a certain amount, reading started to become fun again, rather than a chore. I stopped feeling guilty about reading for fun instead of just for school because both are equally important to me. Now every time I feel the need to scroll TikTok, I open my book instead, remembering why I love reading in the first place.Â
If you also find yourself struggling with the lack of time college gives you to do some of the things you used to do, I recommend not focusing on it too much. I realized that even though I wasn’t spending as much time reading, I was also finding new things I loved to do, and that is just as important.