Written by The Collectress

Captain’s Log. Stardate 95208.35. 

 

Let’s talk about self-care during Gishwhes.

It’s easy, when there’s 203 items and only 8 days, to forego sleep, and food, and sanity in general. I’ve done, you’ve done it, we’ve all done it, especially now, in the middle of GIshwhes week. However, I am here as the voice of experience to tell you: take care of yourself. 

I spent a good part of my morning coordinating my team’s participation in Bearby’s trip to Washington, D.C. A good soul created a Google doc to organise driving volunteers, and I quickly snagged one of the SoCal spots, not realising the hornet’s nest that can come from people trying to drive 5-mile segments in the LA area during rush hour (fun fact: it doesn’t work.) Within an hour or two, my team and I had reached a breaking point and we were near tears and snapping at each other. We gave up our plan of driving in the LA area and signed up for one of the long stretches of the 15 highway on the way to Las Vegas–a long segment that no one wanted.

https://twitter.com/crodobottkins/status/895512615287377920

While I didn’t get to meet Bearby in person, being the person sitting at Command Central, watching the bear’s extremely slow progress across the urban sprawl quickly ticked my anxiety up because the bear has to get to D.C. by Saturday. Go go go. Move move move. Get it done get it done get it done. These thoughts distracted  me so much today while I was at my real-life job and trying to captain my team that I ended up failing at both and getting nearly nothing done until I made myself put it all down, step back, and take a breather. Now, in the past two hours, I’ve finished the loathsome twitter essay and have this paper wedding dress taking shape–more than I did during the 10 hours I was working.

What I learned today is something I should have remembered during all of Gishwhes week: we don’t choose when our anxiety will strike, what will set us over the edge, make us shake and maybe cry, and render us nearly unmoveable. We don’t choose this, but we can recognise the signs and take a minute of ourselves.

Gishwhes above all things should be fun, and the minute it isn’t, stop and do something else. The list has 203 items, and if one stresses you out, you can always drop it, take a break, and then move on to something else.

Remember: If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.

-TC