Here’s how my semester looked: a convention (wasn’t hosting
it), circus show (where I performed and designed costumes), Wind Ensemble
concert, spring break (which involved travelling to Florida, Vermont, and
Washington DC), Jazz Ensemble concert, pit orchestra for “Cabaret”, fire circus
show, dance show, and last weekend was a Jazz Ensemble concert and a senior
recital I was playing in and a Wind Ensemble concert and hosting a convention.
To give you a sense of how I was doing, last weekend I got so little sleep that
I woke up on Saturday sick and it all went downhill from there. I got a ton of
sleep that night and was fine the next morning. What I suspect happened was
that I was so tired that my immune system was completely out of commission and
whatever virus I got just pillaged and burned my body until I went to bed and
my immune system fought it off. I had definitely hit my limit.
And here’s the thing: I thought that I found this out last
spring semester. Last spring I did a similar thing to myself with the shows
(but I had less concerts then) and got sick again in the middle of a tech from
exhaustion. I thought I had learned my lesson then, but clearly not since I
just did it to myself again.
My friend has coined a term, “emotional masochist” for
people like me who bring pain on themselves for kicks basically. I’m not sure
how I feel about that, but I think it sums it up pretty well. When you’re
pretty enthusiastic about lots of things and want to be involved in it all, you
don’t care what it does to you or your body at the time. The only limit that I
set on myself is usually one thing per week. Which often leads to problems,
because you need a break in between things to recharge.
Moral of the story: take it easy, leave time to relax.
You’ll regret it if you don’t. Your body isn’t a machine, it needs to be taken
care of just like anything else.
Am I going to stop? …Probably not. Should I though? I really
should. But I’ll sort that out later.
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