Stepping back to find pace and perspective

By: Kyle Budge

Being a student is exhausting. Like, really exhausting. Between long lectures, unending schoolwork, and multiple part-time jobs, how does anyone have time for anything fun? I’ve been a student for almost my entire life and even if I’m not actively in classes right now, I am planning on getting back into the classroom in the near future to pursue a master’s degree. I’ve been a student through multiple “once-in-a-lifetime” scenarios: from economic downturns to multiple teacher strikes—even a global pandemic. My time as a student has been challenging, to say the least. Through all of that, I’ve had to adapt and overcome those obstacles to continue learning, achieving, and pursuing my goals. It’s been difficult, but hopefully the lessons I’ve learned can help you achieve your goals and stay optimistic throughout the school year.

Two concepts that I’ve found to be the most beneficial are pace and perspective. Pace means how fast, slow, or consistent you are with something, and perspective means how you consider and prioritize your tasks and goals. You’ve probably heard people say, “Remember to pace yourself,” when talking about schoolwork, or how you should “put things into perspective.” The idea is there, but they are hard to understand when you are drowning in homework, pulling an all-nighter, and are already two days late for an assignment. Sometimes it’s good to just keep focused and get it done, but that doesn’t always work. Having been through all of this, I’d like to offer a different take on how to make it through your time at Sheridan.

Think of your education as a mountain, with the goal of making it to the top being graduating from your program. It seems like a long journey when you start out, but when you are climbing the mountain it’s hard to see where you’re going and where you started. Pace is a very important thing to remember when climbing a mountain, just like when you’re working through your program. You can’t sprint up a mountain. You can’t keep climbing day and night without any rest. You can’t keep climbing through injuries and sickness. Just like with your education, you need to know when to rest and when to push through. Checking the weather; checking yourself; checking the road ahead; checking your destination—these are all important factors in assessing what to do next.

I used to struggle with listening to myself and knowing when to rest. It took a long time for me to understand that my body and mind were not keeping up with the pace I was trying to set for myself. I knew I couldn’t make my program go any faster, but I didn’t want to fall behind or lose out on any opportunities. Sometimes it was easy to push through and other times it was very hard, but I kept pushing. Eventually, it just didn’t work anymore. I was mentally and physically exhausted and everything in my life suffered. I kept thinking I wasn’t good enough because I couldn’t push through, but in reality, I was setting unattainable standards that I was never going to achieve.

School, your program, and education in general, are not races. You are not competing against anyone else to finish first, or even finish at the same time. Pace yourself and be aware of what you can handle. When your body and mind are screaming at you to slow down, you should probably listen. Pushing through might work in the short term, but it will not work over long periods of time. You can’t keep up an exhausting pace forever. Asking for extensions, dropping a course because you simply don’t have the time, or putting only a little effort into an assignment instead of your best effort can make a big difference. There’s always an opportunity for rest and setting a new pace, so don’t be afraid to use those opportunities. Sheridan doesn’t want to see you suffer and has plenty of resources available to help you achieve your goals on a timeline that works for you.

My second concept is perspective, which goes hand-in-hand with understanding your own pace. Just like I pushed myself to keep moving forward all the time, I also had no perspective on my education, life, or well-being. I believed that my program was all that mattered in my life: I needed to attend class so I could do well on my assignments; I needed to do well on my assignments so I could get good grades; I needed good grades so I could get a great job; I needed a great job so I could live a wonderful life. By missing a class, or not giving my best effort on an assignment, I felt that I was doomed to have a dreadful life. I’m sure you can see the flaw in this logic.

It’s very easy to get lost in this type of thinking while you are pursuing your education. It takes up all your time, your life is built around attending classes and doing homework, and it can feel like your entire future depends on the outcomes of your education. Once you’re in it, it’s hard to see outside of that perspective. Once you’ve started climbing a mountain, it’s hard to see beyond the next step in front of you. You can’t really tell how long you have left, how far you’ve come, or what the mountain really is. But I’m here to tell you that the mountain that is your education is just one part of your life and that there’s a whole world out there. 

I didn’t put this fact into perspective until late into my program, well after I was already completely burnt out. When I finally did have this realization, it was significantly easier to make decisions that were right for me and not put so much pressure on myself. I dropped a course I couldn’t handle, I took fewer courses and extended my program, and I prioritized things that were important to me and my well-being. I immediately started to see improvement in not only my mental and physical well-being, but also my grades, since I wasn’t working on so many different things at once. This may not be the perfect solution for everyone, but I will always encourage others to find what works for them and prioritize what’s important to them personally. It could be school, family, friends, making enough money to pay rent, anything. It doesn’t matter what the priorities are, but it’s important to shift them around when you need to and not just keep pushing forward when things aren’t working out.

The best advice I never received is that you should never be afraid to quit. I don’t mean that you should immediately give up when things get difficult, or that nothing hard is worth doing. I mean taking a break for as long as you need, quitting something because it’s not making you happy, or not doing it completely on your own. Don’t stick with something that’s stressing you out because it feels like what’s expected or “the right thing to do.” Asking for help can feel like quitting, but really, it’s just taking a break from doing everything on your own. There is no shame in doing what’s right for you and moving some things down on your list of priorities.

Learning how to pace yourself and how to see things from a different perspective is challenging and not something that will change overnight. It takes practice and effort to make it happen, but not being afraid to make changes is the first step. What you can handle today might not be what you can handle tomorrow, so don’t think that your pace and priorities will always be the same. Listen to yourself, adjust as things start to affect you, and if you aren’t sure what to do, talk to someone who can help point you in the right direction. Sometimes a short break is all it takes to realize that you can’t handle the pace you’ve set, or that your priorities have changed and you can see things from a different perspective. The mountain will always be there, you can choose when and how you want to climb it.