Throwing ourselves into work is often seen as gratifying nowadays. The pleasure and the admiration someone might get when they work hard – giving us the idea that pushing ourselves hard is a good way to get the end result they want in the end. 

This could be applied to a lot of things. In the workplace, if someone takes a lot of hours working. Even if they’re just doing it for a living – that’s still classified as burnout. And people might admire them for that. Pushing themselves to their limits, hoping to be satisfied with the end result. 

Or, more times than not, it’s due to school work. In college especially, it’s somewhat deemed like a competition to get the most work done. Not the fastest, but on how much one can get done in one sitting. Especially in the time of finals, when one might push themselves with no sleep, or with energy drinks or coffee. The more than push themselves are seen more as more admired.

When, in reality, that person is experiencing something called burnout. Doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a better turn out. Working towards that goal in the long run – pushing themselves past their physical and mental health for a supposed graditifying result in the end. 

In a public high school, especially at Capital High school, there isn’t that much work. That could just also be me being a sophomore as well. Sure, math homework is often every single day. At The end of the day, you’re allowed to have the time at the end of the day to enjoy things you like to. But everyone experiences burnout differently. 

It depends on the youtube environment as well. I interviewed my cousin, Kayce, who goes to a preparatory school, designed to help you get ready for college. (Which is also in Hawaii by the way.)

She told me what it is like to be in one, where it is a lot more difficult. There is the same amount of fun in a normal school environment, but it’s harder. There’s a lot more homework. 

“Burnout usually occurs when I don’t have anything to really look forward to and feel overwhelmed and trapped in a constant system of schedules and due dates.” She explained when I asked her how she experiences burnout. “Typically, I spend around 3-5 hours on homework daily, depending on the extracurriculars and obligations I have that day and my motivation level. Typically, when I experience burnout, I unintentionally go on tangents to my friends about minor conflicts I notice or experience throughout my day.”

This is due to, when you get burnt out, you tend to snap more easily. It’s a mix of feeling useless and frustrated at oneself and a general sense that you’re not able to do things like you used to do them. Due to this, you don’t realize how that can affect others. Surprisingly though, that can help sometimes.

“My friends also unintentionally help me throughout breaks, sometimes without knowing what’s going on”. Because neither of us has a lot of time, she wrote all of this up in a document on her lunch break, and she mentioned: “Currently, my friend just threw an orange at me while I’m writing this in the school hallway against the lockers.”

Friends and other social situations can also help and hinder the skins of burnout. As I’ve mentioned in ad different article, physical stress can also be tied in with social exhaustion”

“I also isolate myself at home and prevent social situations once school is over. It’s this weird system of being social and then antisocial.”

Burnout can happen in many different kinds of ways- and can tie into each other a lot. It can make us feel stressed and tend to snap at things easily. Forcing ourselves to go on – denying ourselves basic comforts for the end result.

In the end though, will the result actually be worth it in the end sacifring your mental and sometimes physical health to get it done?