Its ok to Say No to Hanging Out
Balancing a social, school, and work life can be hard sometimes and you feel like you can’t let people down. You might feel that if you turn down your friends and family to hangout that they will be mad at you or not want to invite you to anything anymore.
It’s perfectly fine to turn down people to relax by yourself, finish up on work or homework that has been stressing you out. And if people don’t understand, then sit them down and let them know that you’ve been stressing out or just don’t feel like hanging-out that day. Explain that you haven’t had a moment to relax and fuel yourself back up for the next thing you must take on.
My junior year of college was the most stress I’ve ever had trying to balance my social and school life. I had joined a church group in the fall semester of my junior year and I loved it! We would have a Bible study once a week and I would always make it that semester and probably missed it once or twice that semester. I would also participate in events with them outside of the Bible studies.
I slowly started getting behind on my school work and would stay up until the morning to finish up, but would be extremely tired and couldn’t sit through classes without spacing out. My grades started to go down and I felt miserable towards the end of that semester. I started to feel like I was sick and depressed all the time because of lack of sleep.
My second semester was the worst trying to balance everything and I ended up rarely going to my Bible studies and hanging out with people from the church group. I felt like everyone around me didn’t understand the stress I was going through even when I tried to explain it to them.
At first, I was mad at myself for not attending things my second semester, but then I got over it and realized it was ok to stay in and relax or finish up my school work. I learned that I don’t HAVE to go to a Bible study to learn about God, I don’t HAVE to hang out with people when I don’t feel up to it, and I don’t HAVE to feel sorry for canceling on people.
Take at least one day out of the week to sit and do something relaxing for yourself. Whether it is taking a bubble bath, reading a book, face mask, or having a marathon of your favorite TV show or movies on Netflix. Just do it! Your body will thank you for it and you will have peace of mind. If people don’t understand that, its ok, maybe they are not the people you want to keep in your company.
Take some time for yourself and relax!