A common theme that I keep hearing from fellow students is that there isn’t enough time to do everything. Whether it be working out, eating healthy, keeping continuous relationships at home, keeping up our physical health and—most importantly—maintaining our mental health. These are the most common things I hear students wanting to do outside of studying all the time.

I am in the middle of midterm season of my third year, and I’ve started seeing patients this year. I have learned so much in my first two years of school and it amazes me how much I have left to learn. Besides academics and being a trustee for the AOSA, in my limited free time I try to do some things that give me happiness, such as lifting weights and cooking. As much as I would love to work out and cook every day, I have accepted the reality that I have to balance what I like doing and what I need to do. I wish I could say that this acceptance came easily.

Being in school during a pandemic has its own challenges, to which some of us are still adjusting. It can be overwhelming to juggle everything we have to do including the extra responsibility of taking care of our health extra cautiously during this time. While it might seem like having more than 24 hours in a day is needed to do everything, sometimes it’s about learning what tasks are more important, and that comes with practice, prioritizing and compartmentalizing.

Sometimes it may be too difficult to focus on studying for midterms when you feel physically unfit or mentally worn out. Sometimes it may be difficult to find the motivation to study for boards when watching Netflix is the easier short-term decision. But fortunately, there is always enough time in a day when you realize and plan for what is important for your long-term overall health. If your mental health is struggling, it is worth it to take time to rest and nourish your mind instead of pushing through and pulling an all-nighter for a test. It might be a better option to go to the gym instead of forcing yourself to study in one place continuously. Having the fear of not having enough time is actually more detrimental to our health than prioritizing the tasks in our day-to-day life. Whenever you are feeling like you don’t have enough time in a day for everything, you are probably right. There isn’t enough time in a day to do everything—but there is enough time to do everything that is important for that day.

Just like in life, optometry school is filled with obstacles both inside and outside of school. We just have to learn and do what is enough to help us get through those hurdles and also stay as happy as we can through the difficult times.