I sit in my apartment room on my bed, the Tuesday of finals week, doing what any normal college student would do: procrastinate. As I am writing this, I have to think about my simplistic schedule for this week — I have already finished one final exam this morning for a class that is impossible for me to fail at this point, and I have two more to endure by the end of the week. One must be fulfilled in a testing lab on a computer by Thursday afternoon, and the other must be taken in a classroom at noon Friday. I am stuck on campus until then, with nothing else to do except pack for winter break and create a blog out of boredom.

This is my third semester at college and my third finals week that I have endured. And I must say, I find them pretty relaxing. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the stress of one last assignment that can make or break a passing grade for a class that costs a few hundred dollars to enroll in, but ordinary classes are cancelled, and I’ve always been a pretty good test taker. After all, that’s really all that they are teaching in K-12 nowadays. During other times of the year, such as midterms, I would have the stress of a large exam or assignment compounded with the ordinary requirements of daily classes, extra-curricular clubs and organizations meeting in the evening, homework assignments still due the week after, possibly a work shift or two, and attempts to be social with various friends (which usually fall apart). Not to mention the ordinary life struggles of cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry, only one of which I’ve done regularly this semester. But during finals week, I’m not being pulled in a dozen different directions at once. I have my final exams I need to take, and I have four days of dedicated nothingness surrounding them. With the extra time I’ve found, I’m finally starting to feel relaxed.

I understand that my gripes of never having enough time are common among almost everyone else, and becomes especially prevalent during the Christmas season. Yes, even adults who don’t have final exams right at the end of the semester before Christmas still seem to find the holidays more stress-filled than other times of the year, which may be a reason why suicides are often on the rise near the end of the calendar year. But why is it that we all can agree that we have too little time, yet still struggle to calm our schedules? Part of the reason may be our American culture. We strive to achieve 40 hours of work each week, sleep eight hours each day, and in the little periods in between we stuff in social time, volunteering, community organizations, family time, cooking, housework, catching up on the latest movies and TV shows, and scrolling through Facebook and Twitter mindlessly. And while looking at all of that at once can certainly be overwhelming, we enjoy each activity individually and don’t wish to be without it. Because our lives would be so much simpler if we had one less thing to do — but which thing do we give up? Family or social interaction? That’s Ebenezer Scrooge-levels of cold-heartedness. Cooking and housework? That puts a strain on your dollar and your hygiene. Sleep? We all get tired at some point, and tiredness leads to crankiness and other unpleasant side effects. So, maybe we just don’t work as much? Not unless you like underemployment and government welfare.

So, what can we do to save our time and our souls along with it? We can start by focusing our involvement into activities we truly care about. When I was a senior in high school, I had seven different classes with various levels of homework, an after-school robotics team that met daily, a day of volunteering at my church on the weekends, a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I did with my friends from said church, a job to pay for gas money, and the extra BS that was involved with graduation and senior year which I very well could have done without (although ironically, my profile icon is from my senior photo shoot). Once summer hit, and almost everything except the job and D&D campaign stopped, I felt like I could breathe again and promised myself that I wouldn’t let my life get so strained and hectic ever again. I haven’t quite kept that promise, but it’s always in the back of my mind whenever it feels like I can’t fit my life into my time. I’d rather commit myself to one or two important causes that five or six causes that I kinda find fun.

More importantly, we can use the holidays as a reason to refocus our life. I’m looking forward to spending three weeks at home with family, friends, holiday cheer, and not much else. Not everyone can be quite so flexible with their time, but it is important to set aside a few days of just family and friends, especially around the holidays. It is important to focus on what really matters in our life and spend some time cherishing it, with family meals and relaxing conversations in the living room around a fireplace. There’s always so much to do, and the holidays are the perfect time to do none of it at all.