Welcome to the gang. I’m glad to hear you’ve found hope!

A brief thought regarding your situation: just because something is good — in the sense that it helps other people, not just yourself — does not mean it can’t cause stress. I really admire your commitment. What makes the activity vacation work, however, is to really feel a release from any regular obligation. There are ways, I would argue, that you can still feel connected to the world without connecting your schedule to a lot of obligations. One possibility is to keep an aresenal of one-shot volunteer opportunities in your quiver. That is, have options such that, if you see, for example, that an upcoming Saturday is pretty open, that there are places you go and offer your services and be useful. At the same time, however, you don’t feel an obligation that every Saturday you need to be somewhere.

However, I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. My main activities revolve around volunteer work, so if I quit something for my own sanity, what I am I doing for the community? Though I’ve cut out practically everything else from my schedule, I can’t seem to cut out the volunteer stuff because I feel as though it is way too easy to sit in my college campus bubble and enjoy my life without truly understanding what’s going on just outside the bubble. So here’s my question, and maybe someone can help me with it: where do I cut stuff from my schedule and focus without becoming a myopic college student who is selfishly out of touch with the world?

But that’s just me.

Maybe other people do activities for the sake of doing activities.

I’ve turned down so many extracurriculars here, and so have my friends. It’s no big deal.

On the post, it’s an interesting thought. I don’t think I’ll be taking an activity vacation anytime soon (not that burned out so it’s not needed), but I’ll be stricter about cutting out some time sinks.

I don’t agree. A student who engages a quality liberal arts curriculum will develop a sophistication of thought, exposition, and understanding of the world that basically goes unmatched by all but the most exceptionally autodidactic non-college educated individuals.

It is wierd. The thing is, however, that a lot of the hoops students jump through are invented by the students themselves without real verification. This idea that you have to have a whole mess of activities to get into college or get a job, is built on rumor, selective anecdote selection, and fear. The reality I’ve found is that it often helps if you have one thing that you focused on, got good at, then innovated. This provides an indicator of the type of abilities not captured on a transcript; e.g., creativity, practical intelligence, social skills, etc.