My friend Lau couldn't make it to yoga today. Again. School has a dead grip on her, and so just as she finished her project for the Monday class, she had to go on studying for the Wednesday test. Of course, she choose this - nobody is forced to get a post degree - and as result of her choice she had to give up on some things she really loves. One of them is yoga, which she's really good at and which she enjoys terribly. Thing then get harder when you take in consideration that she also has a job, and that actually that job is paying for her degree, so she must do that well in order for her to make sure she doesn't lose it. So yes, her personal life, as she knew it, has vanished from the premises. But that's okay, as she had plenty of time to think about that, consider all factors before her decision, and decided knowing well the cost of it.
Now it's time for her friends - those who not only say that are her friends, but actually ARE her friends - to show support and understanding. You see, this is something not everybody gets. When you are really involved in something, when something matters to you and takes up a lot of your time, sometimes breaking five minutes away to do something else isn't doable. Yes, sure, there are things that aren't absolutely like that, for instance when people get so involved in a relationship that they can't spend a second with their friends - or old friends - because everything is about their significant other and the world around them. Now, I'm not sure I'm making myself clear in here, but the point is that there are things in your life that demand a little bit more than others, and though there are some in which you lung and let them take over your life while you shouldn't, there are others that indeed demand you that type of dedication. Studies, excercise, research, a particular project... yes, these can consume an important portion of your life. Relationships, rutine jobs... well, these maybe shouldn't. Basically, if there's an activity that will extend for a relatively short to medium period, you know it's going to end, and at the end you will come out with a really positive experience, yours, and you feel it would add up to your life, then lung in. If it looks like it would consume all of your life and coming out of it will mean a loss, then balance.
Be it as it may, the decision in the end is only yours. And as friends, what can we do? Respect, support and from time to time remember that our friends might need a little extra umph go keep going towards their goal.
After yoga, I asked Lau if I could stop by to give her a couple of lawnyarns I've made for her. Since she said it was okay, I stopped first at a grocery store and gathered for her a basic "Student's Emergency Care Package". The composition is very simple, and you can stock it from any grocery store and even from a gas station which has a store. I put in Lau's a couple of fashion magazines, so when she has a break she can browse something completely different from her study subjects, but that won't engage her so much as to take her mind away from the studies completely or for a long period of time. Then there were also snacks, a basil flavoured cream cheese for some chips I added, some Red Bull for the long nights and some Smirnoff Ice for the breaks.
Other stuff you can add could be candy - I somehow wasn't sure if she liked candy and what she liked, so instead I added a peanut-raisin mix - coffee drinks, such as the flavoured Starbucks bottles, or similars (we have them also in tetrabrick boxed from Brit, a Costa Rican gourmet coffee brand), coca-cola cans or gatorade, cookies... gash, I don't know? What would you add to a Student Emergency Care Package?
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