Febraury 20. Day 51. A question of balance

It's a weird thing but when time gets tight we tend to give a priority to the things that appear "urgent" not the things that really matter. There's a lot on your plate and the first things that go are sleep, time with the people we love and fresh air and exercise (not necessarily in that order). Of course it is these very things that give us the energy, the will and the drive to do the "important" things. So I take a deep breath and sigh when my teen comes home and reports that "some teachers" are saying they should stop all extra-curricular activities and make senior school a priority. As someone who works in education I rather suspect this has got lost in translation. Yes, this is time to get serious and concentrate on school but doing it at the expense of everything else is a recipe for disaster in my humble opinion. This is the message I tried to get across to the 2014 intake of QUT journalism students at their orientation today. Balance, having fun and making friends is as an important a part of university life as what we teach. So it pleased me to see students signing up to the many and varied university clubs when the official orientation business was over. Whether it be Quiddich, cheerleading, slacklining, rock climbing, extreme Frisbee, orienteering, dance, drama, politics or religion you've got to get involved.And having given them the lecture I decided I better take some of my own advice. I gathered the family and the dogs and we went to play at Nudgee Beach. The cooling sea breeze, a paddle and a walk and the "to do" list was forgotten for a time. The car may be filled with sand and dinner may have been late on the table but in the scheme of things does that matter?