"Too Busy" isn't an Excuse

I've been hearing the same excuse over and over again about people being "too busy."  This isn't an excuse that people have only been telling me, but one that my friend group has been arguing about too.  So many people in our lives have been "too busy" to make time to see us, make time to respond to us, make time to give us the respect we deserve and that we give them.

​We are students at an Ivy League institution.  We all have academic commitments, extracurricular commitments, and social commitments.  It's a given.  We're all busy.  When I hear the excuse "I'm too busy" it's just not enough.

I say it's not enough for a few reasons.  One, I'm the busiest person I know.  I schedule in meals and sometimes even when I need to sleep–yeah, that busy.  I have three jobs and a full course load, am an Active Citizen in my dorm, and am a part of four clubs, plus the one I founded and run.  I am planning a large-scale conference and starting my own non-profit project.  Yet I make time.

Do I struggle to balance everything? Yeah.  But I live by the following quote.

I'm always up for a challenge and know that priorities make all the difference.  As one may imagine, I always have a long to-do list.  Some things have taken the back burner while I've dealt with deadlines.  But if something is really important to you (and timing is important), time will be made.  For example, I was really short on time and needed to change my headlight, so I woke up at 7 am and went to the 24-hour Walmart and got a new headlight and changed it myself.  I added hours to my day to make it happen.

I don't care if you find time to hang out with your friends or significant others during meals or walking to and from class or just even spend time studying in the same place.  A text or call to them even shows effort.  If you want to continue a friendship or build a relationship, there's time.  I'm not saying that anyone is expected to drop everything for someone else, again, we're all busy, but there's always a way to find the time.

There are friends that I haven't seen as much as I would like to and it upsets me that this is the case.  But we've talked to each other and have been trying to find time to meet.  Make the effort.  Schedules are difficult, but there's always going to be time.

So next time don't tell me you're "too busy."  We're all "too busy" so the "too" means nothing.  If there's a will, there's a way.