TODO: attempt to have fun
When it comes to having fun, engineers get a pretty bad rap. Part of it is, in my opinion, slightly unfounded. No, I don’t sit in front of my laptop coding for nine hours straight all of the time. I just sit in front of my laptop coding for nine hours straight most of the time.
The rest of my time is spent trying to do my discrete math homework and Googling something along the lines of “what does this mean?” only to come back with not a single helpful answer. You know… real fun stuff.
In all seriousness, engineering is a term that has become nearly synonymous with this sense of a lack of personal free time. Its quintessential image is almost that of a hermit crab - someone who is stuck indoors all day, unable to take a second to breathe in fresh air for fear of taking time away from the coding project they have due next Tuesday.
I wish I could say that this was an absolute stereotype and that engineers are indeed capable of having a social life. But even as I attempt to type out any justification for this idea from my spot in an engineering study room, I’m met with the sight of a trash can filled to the brim with empty energy drinks and a whiteboard covered with sloppily written physics equations that were probably written by a tired MechE student at two in the morning.
I myself have had several (to be honest, far more than several) instances over the semester where I’ve done nothing but work for days or weeks on end. One could argue that the point of college is to power through these long and difficult periods in order to master incredibly complex topics under the guidance of a skilled department, and I don't necessarily disagree with that. In the end, I’m here to learn and grow as an engineer.
But I suppose my gripe with this mindset appeared when my work became my entire life. I would wake up, work, eat, work, eat, work, and sleep. I’d do this every day for weeks on end, and I wouldn’t do anything else. Perhaps you might be able to empathize with the idea that doing the same thing every day for a long time can be downright infuriating at times. What is the most discouraging part of this, in my opinion, is the fact that the incessant need to work non-stop has sometimes led me to view my work negatively rather than learning to appreciate it.
I’ve come to realize that, in order to succeed in my work, I also need to succeed in some aspect of “having fun” too. Taking a break can be all the difference between your work “clicking” in your head, and your work mocking you to the point where you abandon it and gaze out into nothing as you sit on the couch eating whatever attempt you made at dinner that night.
For me, I have found that literally adding “go for a walk” or “grab dinner with friends” to my to-do list has worked the best. With the way my mind works, the To-Do List is sacred. If an item on it is not ticked off as complete, it stays in my mind throughout the entire day until I finally cave and do something about it. By adding that task alongside the likes of finishing homework assignments and studying for exams, my brain automatically gives it a level of importance it wasn’t necessarily getting before, but desperately needed. In my head, I can now formulate my day to incorporate “working” and “relaxing”, and find a way to get both done.
In reality, this is perhaps a bit harder to execute at times. During finals week, for example, I simply cannot see myself giving the task “go out with friends” an equal amount of significance as “attempt to pass the final exam with 30% of my grade”. But any and every attempt to introduce “fun” into your lifestyle in such a way that it is nearly non-negotiable is a step towards finding a balance within the world of deadlines and responsibilities.
In the end, I understand that literally scheduling “fun” into your day sounds quite ridiculous. But come to think of it, so does “code for nine hours straight without a single break.” Maybe now, you can show your fancy to-do list to your non-engineering friends as unequivocal proof that you are, indeed, capable of having fun.