I’m going to be blunt. I’ve barely entered this semester, and I am already completely burnt out. I don’t know how it’s possible, but it happened. Last semester, I had moved to a new state, had entered a new program, met new people, started planning for a wedding… and nothing; I was completely unfazed. I know what the root of my problem is, truthfully, but I’m not here to share it with you.

I mention this because we all get burnt out in different ways, and I think its okay to admit it’s happened. I can’t necessarily agree to taking a step back because we’re graduate students and that’s not what we do, but there is a shame to it that should not be. Right now, even writing this, very tiredly I might add, I  think, “Well, so and so has so much more on her plate than I do, so really I’m just weak,” but that’s  wrong. What’s on her plate is not on mine and vice versa and we are different people with different  limits and different things that will make us tired faster. Again, I don’t believe in really crying about it or  demanding to have space to recharge, that’s not my cup of tea as we are in graduate school so there is a little bit of ‘suck it up and take it’ we all need to have, but we should be able to tell the people around  us, “hey, I’m not doing so great”, and in doing so we can change our environment to help us get out of  the burn out without ever actually stopping because people tend to want to help you in small ways and  tend to be understanding of it, so there’s less for you to feel guilty about not getting done. In my experience, completely going full throttle with zero battery left in me delayed me longer than just  slowing down, as shameful as slowing down may be, in the end it is more efficient.

The second trick to escaping the burnout, is to find something to temporarily get you out of whatever  environment is most burning you out, even if it’s your brain. I, for one, will squeeze in swimming between classes and experiments if I can help it, where I have to consciously take time to walk to the rec center, swim, and under no circumstances remember that I’m on campus. “Technically I could be  working”, I think, as I quickly counter, “But I wouldn’t; I’d just look like I’m working when I’m at my desk, completely burnt out. At least I’m doing something here.” I have to say my initial guilt led to a great point. Be productive in your unproductivity and make sure it’s something not at all related to the thing  draining your battery. Since I mainly drain myself with my mind, I swim and focus on counting my laps, on counting my time, watching what’s going on in the other pool, really, anything that is tied to reality  but not the draining reality. Again, I say this with the concept of moderation. As much as I would like to  say, “Screw it; I’m swimming instead,” to some classes or experiments, those will always need to be our  number one priority as we are here for school first.

We’re here to be great. That means the path is typically going to be the opposite of great. It’s going to be absolutely awful sometimes, but those are rarities. We’ll more likely encounter these average grievances, and through it all we’ll actually enjoy our time here. With my burn out, I’m finding the good  things while this is the grievance tackling me right now. Nothing is going to be cheery all the time, what  matters is how we handle it and move forward, the outlook we put upon it. We need to make the most of any situation we’re in, and grievances are no different. One day, we’ll be able to fondly look back on  our grievances throughout grad school. For now, I’m napping.