There’s a line in a poem I studied for A-Level English Lit about “ever climbing the ever climbing wave”

At the time, all my minimum target grades were A*’s, I was working weekends, was doing debate club and political work experience. At 16/17, I felt that line very deeply.

I’ve never forgotten that line.

Now, aged 23 I am trying to give the last year of my degree my very best, alongside considering how best to nurture my career, and somehow build a respectable future and life for myself at a tricky time.

And that line still resonates so deeply.

I don’t ever want to lose the sense of joy and accomplishment that comes from succeeding at a new challenge.

But the thing about feeling like you are trying to climb a wave is that it’s not just about climbing, it’s also about trying not to drown.

Anyway, the mariners in the poem decide that having worked all their lives, they’ve worked enough and make a pledge to stay on a sort of ‘island of rest’ and never leave.

I won’t be doing that. Like I said, I enjoy challenges and like a lot of us, that’s not an option for me.

But there are some things to be said I think:

Firstly, for many people the insurmountable task is trying to exist in a world that regularly makes it so hard for people working their hardest and giving their absolute best.

It needn’t be the case, it’s engineered that way.

The next things are more personal to me, I think, but maybe others would benefit from hearing them now

Don’t neglect rest, or you’ll forget you like what you do and become so resentful you’ll want to give up

Also there’s a sense sometimes, that if you just pour out every last drop and wring yourself dry, you will be able to be in control of things but that’s not true.

Anyway this thread is too long already, but here’s the poem if you’re interested https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45364/the-lotos-eaters