It’s Okay to Feel Inadequate

At times, everyone struggles with feeling inadequate. Sometimes you just don’t seem to be enough for whatever task is at hand or whoever needs you. The feeling of being overwhelmed is how I imagine it must feel to suffocate. You keep trying to catch your breath, but every time you inhale you simply lodge the obstruction more solidly in your windpipe. Yes, at times it is inescapable, the feeling of being left behind in your own life.

In college, this is most common with courses. At times the amount of work seems insurmountable, there is just one too many pages to be read, one too many assignments to complete, and less than enough time to finish everything. Often it is hard to stay on track with the syllabus. You decide you need a day to relax, maybe after working so you don’t finish up all of your assignments, and then before you know it, boom! You’re stuck in a never ending race to catch back up. The farther behind you fall, the more despondent you begin to feel towards it, the more apathetically you regard it, and eventually midterms or finals roll around and the crushing sense that you didn’t live up to your potential mars your spirit.

The hardest thing to remember at times is that we are all human. It is not possible and I would even go so far as to say unnatural, for us to always be on target with the requirements in our lives. Sometimes you need the day, or the extra hour of sleep. Why then, when we do allow ourselves these simple pleasures do we berate ourselves to the bone afterward? The problem is that we want it all. We want our pleasure time, our relaxation time and our excellent organization and grades. However, being what we are it is impossible to ever have this complete package. The best thing that we can do for ourselves is to not get stuck along the way, to keep moving forward, because life isn’t something we can accomplish, or win, it just is. Our everyday choices and experiences are ultimately our life and we need to learn to live in the present and enjoy the different forms of happiness all around us.

It is a struggle sometimes, feeling that we are never where we want to be in this life, but while it is important to work hard and be responsible, it is not your whole life, so you must not let it rule you.