Balance

I am sitting at my desk, at the back of the fifth grade classroom. I just finished the first draft of the hand out for a workshop I am leading at the Fulbright Fall Conference. The workshop is about leading a balanced life in Korea. What I mean by this is trying to achieve a healthy balance between work-life and social-life, building new relationships here, but not forgetting old relationships in the States, etc. It is impossible to achieve the perfect balance, but I think it is important to strive for it. Too much focus on one area of your life will cause you to burn out.

I quickly realized this during the first weeks at my placement. Because it is my first time teaching, I spent the evenings at home occupied with planning out my lesson, and even when I was eating dinner with my host family, or watching a movie, thoughts of work would not leave me. Very soon after I started work I realized that I can not take work home with me or I'll go crazy, so now I try to restrict work to the 8 hours that I spend at school.

I experienced the same thing with my host family. In my eagerness to not be a burden, and establish a good relationship with them, I began planning my entire day around their schedule. The kids are very young, so they go to bed around 8pm, and so I also began making sure I would be home and in my room by 8pm, so as not to disturb them. When I was eating dinner out with friends, I would frequently glance at my watch to make sure I would be home at the time I told my host family.

My effort to please my host family is not bad, and I still try to be considerate of the little ones' bed time. However, I have realized I need to strive for a balance. I cannot focus my entire energy on living for other people, which I had in essence been doing up until recently. I need to be considerate of my host family, while also realizing that I am my own person, and it is ok for me to occasionally come home after 8 pm (as long as I communicate my plans with my host parents).

So in conclusion, what I mean by balance, is finding a way to carefully and consciously spend my energy on work, social life with friends, host family and myself in a way that gives equal attention to all aspects of my life. Only with balance, I think, will I avoid burning out in one or all areas.