To The Extremes

We can never have it all, can we?

It’s a fact that we can’t be perfect. Nothing is perfect. No one is perfect. We can’t have all the time in the world, and we can’t be the exact replica of the person we consider ideal in our own perspectives. We can’t be everything we want to be, and we can’t be everything that everyone wants us to be. There is never a perfect compromise. There is never a perfect balance.

Nowadays, it’s only one way or the other. It’s rarely in the perfect spot in the middle. Life always tilts to one side, and leaves the other side hanging there. At one point, it becomes too lopsided. When something is lopsided, it is unbalanced. When things are unbalanced, it will take a lot of effort to fix it to its proper state. If there is nothing we can do about it, we complain.

Then again, balance is one of the hardest things that we achieve and/or maintain in life. We always try to improve what we lack, but then it will cause another imbalance to other factors. It’s a cycle, basically. If not, this can be compared to a dog chasing its own tail. You keep on trying to fix something while forgetting about the other.

I remember one of the things that the outgoing president of my home organization (MEA, aka the Management Engineering Association) said in his opening remarks during the first day of Prepcourse, an activity to welcome the incoming ME freshmen. He was talking about the myths of being an ME student and tried to unravel the truth to what it’s like to be studying in that course. I remember getting threatened, yet challenged and inspired to make it through the rigorous path that was set before me.

I remember agreeing to one of the myths that he presented. He said that being an ME student can only allow you to have two of the three S’s of life as a student: Studies, Sleep and Social Life. There is never a perfect balance to the three, unless you are Superman or something to that extent.

I can tell you now that this myth has some truth, but only to an extent. It is really hard to balance the three things out. I’d like to believe that I currently lack sleep, like I always do. Then again, I have been lacking sleep since my first year of adolescence (or being a teenager, I guess). Other times, my studies get imbalanced, making social life and sleep the two S’s that I have. It doesn’t only apply to ME students, it applies to everyone. However, I don’t know what replaces the S for studies for those who work? Salary, I guess? Okay, maybe that’s too much.

However, since I can’t have all the S’s in one night, it makes me plan for the next day to come. For example, tonight. I won’t be able to finish a fourth to a third of my Filipino novel, and I was not able to plan my study schedule for the days to come (and I really need to since it’s almost Finals Week). I think you get the point, basically. Thank God for my six to seven (or maybe eight?) hour break tomorrow. Looks like I have to use that wisely.

Maybe having extremes in a good thing. It gives you a goal-setting mindset, and by doing so, you are always aiming for something better. When you aim for something better, you grow into a better person. If you achieve your goal, good for you. If not, you work harder. If you really can’t and/or you failed, you learn from your mistakes and keep on trying other ways to balance the extremes out.

Maybe we can have it all, but only in the sense that we grow into better people.

Here’s to living live to the extremes, then. I just hope life won’t be tipped over too much on one side. Living with life tilted to one problem might mess everything up.

And of course, I really don’t want that to happen.