My first week of school for 2008 has been so exhausting. I have been sleeping past 12 everyday and waking up at around 5ish, which technically means a total of a little more than 24 hours of sleep for 5 freaking school days. That’s definitely a record in itself.

A year ago, I would’ve been shocked to know that I could be capable of depriving myself the beauty sleep for 5 consecutive days due to all these scholastic endeavors. My Political Science majors are all holding me captive, pressuring me to read and finish more readings that I ever had my entire college life in Ateneo. I’ve always considered myself to be personally hard-working, but coming into my last semester, my junior year puts that into a test and requires me to take my game-on strategy to a whole new level. What a stressed-out generation. We thrive, live and constantly immerse ourselves on stress. And the only things that matter at the end is how one handles it all.

I guess I’m so used to it that the absence of stress is something I actually stress about. Does that sound as pathetic as I think it is? (And to think, ang bata ko pa. hahaha.) Don’t get me wrong. I do appreciate my downtime every now and then. And I also completely support the reward-yourself-after and relish those rare time-for-yourself moments. Occasionally, I also find myself succumbing to procrastination. However, I do enjoy my active lifestyle, and wouldn’t want to live otherwise (at least for now). It forces me to be driven and focused, with my priorities and goals in mind.

So despite all the major and minor humps on the road, I get through the day with my armor of positivity and optimism. The unfaltering kind that prepares me to interpret mishaps as opportunities, accidents as discoveries, and disagreements as chances to grow.

I think I’d be needing that for the weeks ahead.