The myth of no time

There are never enough hours in a day.

I found myself thinking to myself about how I just don't have enough time to accomplish all the things I need to do as well as the things I want to do. Then I paused, took a step back and realized — nearly everything on my 'needs' and 'wants' lists are things I was dying to have time to do not one year ago.

Now that I have a job and can spend my free time as I see fit, I've jam-packed things in my day-to-day life that I never had time for before, this blog included. I first started this blog last summer, and it gives me weekly opportunities to write for fun — something that was often foreign to me as an aspiring journalist. In my mind, if I had free time that could be used for writing, I should've used it to write something that would advance my career. Now here I am, with both — the articles and the blog. Sometimes I forget to be thankful for that.

Additionally, I do yoga three times a week. I did yoga sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly in college, but I started doing it three times a week in the mornings around January or February. But already, it feels crucial to my routine on those days. I remember my senior year of college, I would feel guilty if it had been weeks (or months, yikes) since I last went to the gym or a yoga class. While sometimes it feels like a 30-minute yoga practice is preventing me from getting other things done, I'm thankful it's become a part of my normal day-to-day life. I'm thankful that I have the time to stretch, be kind to my body, and challenge myself in this way.

This year, I also decided I wanted to read two books a month. I love reading, but reading for fun in college was often unattainable because of everything else I had going on. If I had time at night and wasn't falling asleep, I knew what I should be reading was assigned chapters for my classes. I'm trying to keep that era of my life in the back of my mind every time I feel like I don't have time to pick up the book I actively chose to read. I can make the time.

I believe that no matter how much time we have, it won't feel like enough. Why? Because we always fill it. If I have three hours to get ready, I'll take three hours. If I have 20 minutes, I will find a way to get it done. Similarly, I have more free time now than I've had in a long time. So I found myself filling it up. Now, I'm finding even more things I want to do, but it seems like I don't have any time left. Often, we do have time, we just have to make it.