As we hit the home stretch of the school year, I can feel myself start to grow stagnant. I’m stuck in this cycle—work like my life depends on it, go on auto-pilot, pass out, repeat—and I’m either perpetually stressed or dead to the world.

I tend to get rigid and irate during this time of year, especially with the new responsibilities on my plate every spring. It makes things so much less fun, and just generally too much.

So to combat that, I think it’s time to get unserious.

Of course, there’s no time to slack or change my stride, but there’s still opportunity to have fun. 

You know, not feeling an overwhelming sense of dread every time I open my eyes.

The problem is that as a teenager, we’re told to have fun, but we don’t get the opportunity to put it into practice nearly as much as we’re expected to. I feel like my brain’s melting half the time, and that makes it hard to want to do anything other than rot in my bed after the day’s done.

But as the best part of the year kicks off, I think that I should get to take myself a little less seriously. The color guard season is on its last leg, my independent study project won’t kick back up in its entirety until June, and aside from exam season, I’m nearly home free.

So in the next two months, I’m gonna try to laugh way more. Maybe dig into my summer bucket list early, and schedule a few more trips in April.

Despite the world crashing down around me, I gotta get moving—I might die if I stay stagnant.