Anonymous

Photography by Charles Givens

If you’re reading this, take life one day at a time.

As soon as I stepped foot onto Duke’s campus, I was already behind. Everyone around me, it seemed, had the perfect four-year plan chalked out for themselves: gen-ed requirements in freshman year, exploring extracurriculars in sophomore year, advanced coursework and research in full swing by junior year, and post-college endeavors solidified by senior year. And somehow, before the “best years of my life” could even begin, I was scrambling to catch up.

I realized early on that I could never be as prepared as my peers. I couldn’t operate based off of a pristinely designed schedule that mapped out my academics, hobbies, and experiences for my entire undergraduate career. Heck, I barely knew what classes I would take each semester!

Unfortunately, this was just the “way it was” once you came to college. You sat yourself down in front of your computer one night, opened up a blank Excel sheet, and let the color coordinating begin. And if you didn’t? Well, you’d learn the hard way that whatever else you were trying simply would not work. This was the norm. And deviating from it didn’t make you “quirky”—it basically signed you up for an experience of struggle. 

So how, then, was I supposed to “make it”? 

Cue title sequence: I began to take life one day at a time. 

The past eight months have been truly brutal for me. Sure, as college students, we are expected to invest time into our academics now to secure our futures—overcommitting ourselves is just a part of the package. And sure, I did have lighter work days and meaningful experiences with friends and family, but the looming threat of the studying that was to come never waned. In fact, it grew with every moment of freedom or relaxation I risked to offer myself.

But the key to surviving—and eventually thriving—over these past eight months began by finding the parts of my day that I grew to look forward to and, consequently, making time for them. Even things as small as the occasional off-campus dinners to explore the city, the late-night ice cream runs after a long day in the library, the walks around the medical school campus, and the spontaneous choreo sessions in campus dance studios all served as an outlet for me away from the monotonous and seemingly infinite loop that my life had become. These seemingly minuscule yet ultimately pivotal experiences reunited me with the part of me that had become buried under the pressure of trying to “make it”. And slowly, I began to feel like myself again. 

I took my bird’s eye view of my life and zoomed in. Instead of plotting the optimal moves that would make an ideal undergraduate career, I began setting and working towards daily goals. Instead of gearing every experience towards preparing me for my future, I celebrated my small victories. But most importantly, living in the present moment, granting myself the freedom to make time for myself, and living my life rather than letting life happen to me has made me certain that the future will have the best possible permutation of plans in store.

It’s hard to resist the burden of conformity, especially when the system that works for everyone else around you just doesn’t click for you. To this I say: trust your gut. You know yourself better than anyone else will. So stay authentic to what works best for you. Cut yourself a little slack, pride yourself in how far you’ve come, and in this race we call life, stop and smell the roses.

Take life one day at a time. 

Anonymous, Duke University

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