A lot of people tend to believe that every moment needs to be dedicated to stuff that'll help your career. Every day I keep finding myself going back and forth between panicking about making Patreon post content and working on my comic and graphic novel before school starts, versus just wanting to enjoy the free time that I have, and I often end up doing nothing which doesn't feel restful at all.
My advice? Just do something pointless.
It sounds really counterproductive, I know. I fight that internal battle every day. But since I started my winter break two weeks ago, I spontaneously decided to write a narrative for an original character who matters to four other people in a tiny little universe of characters we've built together. This supposed-to-have-been-short story has turned into a 58-page long google doc (which I'm currently going through and editing) where I've spilled all of my creative juices for something that literally will never matter for my professional growth, it will not help my art or social media, and I and four other people will be the only ones in the world to ever enjoy it.
But you know what? Out of everything I've done these last two weeks, spending hours writing this overall useless story has been the most relaxing thing I've done. There's no pressure behind it because it's a purely selfish endeavor. It won't make me famous, or get me a following, or even make sense to anyone outside of the four people who know this character and her story and the world she lives in. It's that freedom and pure self-directed enjoyment that's made this project so relaxing.
Maybe you prefer to play Dungeons and Dragons, maybe you prefer to animate or draw or knit or sew or do a bunch of sudoku puzzles, or maybe you're more like me and love to create entire worlds and stories for characters you will never use outside of a singular Discord server or friend group. If you ever need something that feels relaxing and fulfilling, take my word for it. Spending time on something only you or a small group of friends will ever appreciate really is peak self care, especially for anyone with a creative mind.
That's all I have for now. Happy holidays!
This...this is supervuiously magificentiful! The words flow through my veins like the insulin i take for my diabetes. Y'know, I think i'll do the square dance to this one in my second grade classroom, pray i dont break my ankle!
UPDATE: broke my ankle