The importance of balance remains the same but the result of balance looks different for everyone . It is important to have balance in your life but it doesn’t have to look like the stereotypical “it” girl routine to have it. Prioritizing your well-being as best as possible and what’s important to you in the moment just may be all you need – recent interviewees have made that idea more plausible. Beatriz de la Cruz and decaris hunter allowed me into their personal views on balance , in this joint interview I had dropped the normal questionnaire and here’s why.
Beatriz , a fulltime student in digital media strives to become a graphic designer. All the while Hunter, our “spread the love “ guy, aspires to become familiar with drones to capture more footage of events he may hold and need to promote for his nonprofit “spread the love”. Beatriz had expressed her desire to improve her skills in graphic designing – Though her schedule seems to be free, life is no easier. With school as a main priority , family also takes up much of her time as well. She’s made it clear that it’s been a shift in the way she used to balance things compared to now, having to take care of more outside responsibilities and how it may affect her . to continue a balance within her lifestyle she made it a point to continue to be kind to herself as well as others. “I’ve been tested by my patience. I’ve been tested with a lot of time and patience – it’s definitely hard but the one thing that helps is kind of being able to be present in the moment-”, she communicated the need to take a breather and find grace in a new day. To be in contact with support systems and communicate as best as possible needs or boundaries was another point she made, “communicating that whether you’re comfortable or going through something, if you’re having struggles with school, you communicate with people you have.” Hunter, our “spread the love” guy related to Beatriz shift in responsibilities and how it affected her ability to balance life. Aside from school and managing his non profit, Hunter is a youth minister, a husband, a father. “I’m still trying to learn a balance because I have adhd -”, he jokingly emphasizes. “It’s like mayhem , trying to find that balance -thats where im at , thats where im struggling at right now because it’s like the only way i feel like i can balance is if i don’t sleep.” We can all agree with this sentiment , it’s hard to balance when all we have is 24 hours in a day and things due at a certain time frame. But even if it’s four hours or eight hours of sleep it’s important to always allow your body to rest unless itll force you into it itself. “I think i spend a lot of time on survival mode for awhile and there’s a saying you can’t pour from an empty cup, so when you’re spreading yourself very thin and start sacrificing your well being there comes a time your body will shut down, and that’s happen to me, and you don’t want to get to that point because trying to recover from that is painstaking. So to save yourself from that you want to manage your being and your time and sometimes that requires you to sacrifice other people or other events , and maybe you don’t want to flake on somebody or you really wanted to do this but you can’t keep sacrificing yourself-”, beatriz indicated through closing our interview.
Caleb Jordan (digital media professor), he recently graduated and now holds a masters of science in strategic communication. Jordan’s definition of balance is “living with moderations, not in the extremes of self denial or self indulgence.” This is a concept taught in buddhism. This sounds about as zen as zen can get but even he struggles to maintain balance. “I’m definitely not balanced. I’m a workaholic and sloth depending on the time of day or day of the week.” , he explained quite honestly. His explanation goes farther to say The only thing that changed was the level of responsibilities i had with my employment. He continues to be as transparent with his answers , he points out the acknowledgement as to being a workaholic. He still makes an effort to prioritize his relationships outside of work through time management. Going on dates on days he’s not expected at work. This just may be the only effort he’s able to muster up though his busy work week – “lack of balance impacts the quality of my work and motivation to do it. I’m confident that I could be performing at a higher level and be more content if I actually got real, consistent sleep.”He advises students to do their best, explore options and find their passions. “I may not have a balanced life, but I’m proud of what I have achieved and the impact, for better or worse, I have on my students.”
Balance isn’t all about having your ducks in a row – reading through these testaments you may feel these people struggle with balance . see it from this point of view : balance is a spectrum that needs to apply to everyone but it remains different for each individual. Everyone needs balance but whatever that may look like is different depending on circumstances, life, health, responsibilities. These testaments are insightful and honest, a reminder that as humans even just keeping afloat is better than drowning(better to have a rocky routine than none at all) .
