Our whole lives we have been fed the same narrative about work. That the more of it we do, the more value we have. Hard work leads to academic success which leads to professional success which leads to more value in the eyes of America. To earn the spots we have in college, we had to accumulate hordes of work: extracurricular activities, sports, clubs, volunteering, all while keeping up our GPAs high. Now that we’re in college, the setting has changed but the work hasn’t. It has just taken a different form. Our work has shifted to searching for internships, research opportunities, and jobs, all while figuring out what we should do for the rest of our lives.
Yet, something has shifted in many of our lives recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s as if a cog came loose in our well-oiled machines and the perpetual grinding ceased. As internship opportunities are canceled and organizations are dismantled, a lot of us are left with less work than we have ever had. My daily routine now consists of me scrambling around to find readings I can get ahead on, homework I can triple check, or some other kind of “productive” activity that can help speed the day along and combat my incessant boredom.
But at the end of the day, when all the boxes on my to-do list are checked, I am left wondering what the point of all this “work” really is. What categorizes an activity as “productive” or not? Is my free time better spent pushing myself to get days ahead on schoolwork or FaceTiming the friends I miss who are also social distancing? Should I be searching for an unnecessary side gig to occupy my time or picking up that new hobby I have been wanting to try out?
We are all by-products of a culture that pushes us to output as much productive labor as we can each day. But that mindset doesn’t account for the unprecedented nature of our current situation. We cannot expect ourselves to stay booked every second of the day in the midst of a global pandemic. It is okay to let yourself read that book you have been wanting to read, cook that recipe you have been craving to make, get a couple extra hours of sleep, or call your grandparents for a couple hours to brighten up their day. There hasn’t been a more important time in many of our lives for self-care and human connection than right now. Despite the school and work obligations that a lot of us might still have on our plates, don’t forget to take time for you.