Beyond Burning Out by Tata Tirapongprasert ’22

Beyond Burning Out: Reclaiming Life’s Missing Joy

by Tata Tirapongprasert ’22

Standing strong with head held high, the minotaur was trailing through the endless labyrinth. A compulsion to know; A desire to understand. He paused and pondered, “Why am I here?”

I wrote this stanza in SEL class two months ago. Unlike the ambitious minotaur, I found myself cast adrift in the current of life. The class had become a stampede through an endless maze, chasing one assignment after another. As I tracked one down, five more popped out, and the hunt continued. Gawking into the abyss between two summits of homework that should have been handed in weeks ago, I began to wonder: “Why am I here?”

This is the question that every high school student should ponder deliberately. It is too easy for us to forget our why amid the trivial many chaotic day-to-day events. Without a strong why, we are prone to throwing ourselves into bed and unconsciously scrolling through Instagram until 2:30 AM before receding into our cocoons just to wake up and relive the vicious, same-old-same-old routine.

It is vital to distinguish between burnout and laziness. Despite overlapping symptoms, these two are as different as chalk and cheese. As bittersweet as it sounds, high school students have developed a somewhat unique way of justifying their behaviors. One of the most notorious scapegoats is a coinedup phenomenon known as “senioritis.” It makes shifting the blame from ourselves remarkably easy, muttering as if laziness is an inevitable phase in one’s high school life. The term is, at best, an excuse—no wonder why many parents and teachers never bother to investigate the underlying issue seriously.

While senioritis is a whimsical wisecrack you might joke about at the dinner table, burnout is a severe psychological syndrome—one that deserves proper care and recognition. According to HelpGuide, burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Some symptoms include frustration, sadness, lack of hope, and fatigue, leading to anxiety and depression. A well-renowned social psychologist Christina Maslach acknowledges that the leading cause behind occupational burnout is an individual’s lack of control due to work overload. Bashed by a squall of responsibilities causes a person to feel overwhelmed as if they are not in the saddle anymore. The emotion then accumulates over time, manifesting itself into a state of mental fatigue.

Regaining strength and pulling oneself out of such emotional turmoil is different for everyone. I have found it remedying to remind myself of what matters to me. After many contemplation sessions,

cont. on pg. 11