Something that I’ve recently wondered about is what makes people so busy all the time: at school, at home, in life, I seem to see all my friends extremely busy with no time to hang out, hit the gym, or and like breathe since they seem to be buried in work. 

Like I remember once asking a friend to grab a meal at a d-hall and they replied “Yeah I’m free next next Wednesday from 12:45 until my 1:30 class” while on my end, I literally could have gotten lunch that very same day. Do people seriously have every single meal of the day already pre-planned with other friends for weeks in advance…? Cause if so, then I’m REALLY behind on my social life. If not, what the heck are people doing for every single other meal of the day which makes their earliest “free” time multiple weeks away…? And it’s not just my school friends who I guess can be considered more “busy” than those who don’t go to an ivy league school: I need to plan hangouts with my friends at home too weeks in advance. 

It was only a few years ago where I could just pull up to my friend’s house after school/church and we could chill out on their couch until the day ended. Now it feels like everyone is going Hollywood as they are caught up in the business of their work. 

My main point is that I seem to be missing something that everybody else my age in life is on. I can’t quite put my finger on it: is it just that everyone else is simply more mature than I am with more responsibilities?

It’s not like I’m not a busy person this summer or at Pton: currently, I’m taking classes 4 hours in person every single day, I’m interning with AlignUs, I’m working part time at NY braces, shadowing dentists, studying physics/DAT, working out, and being my younger brother’s chauffeur to and from camp/extracurriculars. I joined my church’s tech team, host book club meetings biweekly, prep/counsel for Camp Kesem, and am a small group leader for middle schoolers. I would honestly consider myself to be a pretty busy person this summer with a reasonable amount of responsibility (And this would be considered MUCH less busy than what I experience at school). But I’ll still eat lunch and dinner every day which I can easily accommodate any friend to join me for. Even if I’m busy with studying, I’ll still have to take a break eventually which I would also like company for. And this is exactly how it’s always been in my life: I was extremely “busy” in high school, but I could still hang out with my friends in between study seshs/for meal times. 

Even when I do have the most hectic times of my life, I still have dedicated periods to going to the gym, doing devotionals, journaling, practicing piano/guitar, or doing other chores; all of which are times that I would be more than happy to exchange to catch up with an old friend. 

Which leads me to my current question of what makes us (older people) unable to hang out with each other like before? Why does it feel like my friends are too busy to actually hangout with and I can only get their attention on special occasions? This is especially true of pton. I feel like the only people I can just say “hey i’m coming over to hang out now” would be like ceviche/mother shin (code names hehe), but everyone else I would feel bad for taking their time of day. 

Now of course, I understand the idea of prioritization: people would and should prioritize spending time with people they TRULY care about like their family/SO (i’m not claiming my friends don’t care about me LOL, more like I understand that I’m not their inner inner circle). I also understand the difference between extroverts and introverts and know that some people would rather spend free time alone. And I understand that one would and should prioritize grades/extracurriculars over grabbing a meal. That’s all completely well and true. 

But what I am saying is people are starting to prioritize “being busy” a little too much: it can’t be healthy to think that spending an hour away from studying/work to catch up with a friend is seriously going to affect your grade in any way. It can’t be healthy to have your next available 45 minute free time two and a half weeks from now. And honestly, I think that this “busyness” is exactly the cause of so much stress and struggles that I see affecting so many people today.  It’s important to set aside rest/free time daily rather than biweekly: this is probably a pretty effective way to avoid burnout too. Anyways, idk if this blog post made sense or if I just sound immature who doesn’t know that other people have actual responsibilities. In any case, hopefully y’all are doing well and being swaggy and cool.