Boundaries

Lately, the topic of boundaries has become quite an important matter of reflection in my life.

It started off with wondering about the boundaries I’m setting with other people, which one’s I’ve crossed in the past and have paid heavily for; but also the ones that I have understood completely and respected. Before, the way I understood boundaries was quite different. Naively enough, I would think that if you were close enough to a person, then boundaries wouldn’t matter. We’d just fall into a routine that we were used to and that’s that, there would be no potential for us to cross boundaries. But experience has taught me that, that is simply not true. In fact, we have to work twice as hard to maintain those boundaries simply because our lives intertwine so much.

Boundaries are exceptionally important in interpersonal relationships and I have grown to learn and appreciate that.

Today, however, I’m in a dilemma about work-life boundaries.

As a student, it’s easy to immerse yourself in just college work but I’ve decided that I don’t want that for myself. I don’t want to be your average college-going kid who does only college-related activities. Instead, I want to be someone who is growing outside of that space as well.

(Also, ironically enough, I had to pause on writing this blog post for about 30 minutes because work interfered)

I’ve been trying to be that person who reads on her own, makes her own content and basically, has way more going on in her life than just plain old college. And I think I am that person, for the most part. And I love that part of my life. I love my reading time, my writing time and my time dedicated to solely self-improvement activities, but I also love to work and I love Psychology.

Lately, however, it feels like I can’t be that person who has both things under her belt. When I try to get some ‘me time’, college, work or some other aspect of my academic and personal life start to interfere. If I try to put in some actual work, I begin to feel guilty that I’m not giving myself enough space and time to work on myself.

It’s becoming a rather exhausting and gruesome cycle for me and though I’ve been trying to find a way out of it, I just can’t seem to. There seems to be too much college-related work and work in general for me to even breathe.

Like the other day, I had just barely laid down to read a book when one of my professors called about something he’d sent me and wanted me to see. Today as well, I was attending a Playback Theatre rehearsal after the absolute longest time, but within the first 5 minutes, another professor called regarding something important and college-related.

Though I’ve been trying to make the time, I just can’t seem to catch a break.

I’ve been struggling to draw those lines and reinforce those boundaries between these two aspects in my life. They’ve been overlapping too much for me to be able to keep track.

I don’t know, I’m trying to figure it out. And something tells me that I should ask for help. So if you do have certain methods or strategies that you use for yourself and they work, what would you suggest? How can I strictly adhere to the rules I lay down for myself – as far as work and life are concerned?