The fall weather brings with it midterms, an endless supply of Instagram photos of pumpkin spice lattes, and dreary clouded weather. It’s the time of year when students settle into their schedule and do their best to coast through finals and hope to make it through to J-term.

This kind of complacency can feel incredibly satisfying; because let’s face it, writing an eight page summary essay isn’t even close to the caliber of enjoyment as shamelessly Netflix binging New Girl for four hours straight.

Although many would deny it, I’m sure that the majority of college students would rather live the college lifestyle without the seemingly excessive work that comes with it, and there is nothing wrong with that. Many of us have gone through tumultuous times in our lives leading up to this point, and being able to take a break every once and awhile is both enjoyable and healthy.

However, in our recovery we become mired in lethargy that we cannot break out of. This is the point where the responsibilities and pressures of our lives undermine our relaxation causing even more stress than before. Just like the struggle to get out of your warm bed for a dark and cold 8 a.m. class, we craft ways to stay in our bed, both metaphorically and literally.

We try to shut out the outside world so that we don’t have to be reminded that however comfortable your bed is, we were not made for the sole purpose of lying in our warm beds. As hard as it is to realize sometimes, a bed is both a sanctuary and a prison that simultaneously heals our exhaustion, and robs us of our motivation to return to the responsibilities of our waking lives if lingered in for too long.

In literature and cinema there is a concept of the archetypal heroes’ journey, where, loosely put, the hero in question (famous examples being Luke Skywalker, Gilgamesh or Harry Potter) is called to a journey or quest in an “extraordinary world,” fights some bad guys, returns changed for the better, and learns to balance the life between the two worlds. Leaving the hero better off than when the story began.

In many ways, our journey through the magical world of rest and relaxation is like the archetypal hero’s journey. We answer the call of our bodies and minds to seek rejuvenation. All of this is well and good, except we find difficulty in returning to the “ordinary world” and choose to stay in the “extraordinary world” because life there seems easier.

However wonderful that world is, it is an illusion, and we must return to the life that has deadlines, work, and stress. The only way to return to the “ordinary world” is to rediscover your call to action, or the fuel in your life that compels you to do what you do.

For some, it’s study of medicine to help the sick, for others it is the call to law to help the helpless, and for others that call is to study the natural world to better mankind. It is all too easy to be seduced by the temptress of complacency, but it is an illusion crafted by your mind to distract you from the fire of life burning within you, to be a burning comet lighting up the night sky. Mark Twain famously said that there are two important days in your life, the day you are born, and the day that you discover why.

Although our time here seems like it will last forever, it is fleeting. Don’t be stalled by complacency in your life and burn a light so bright into human history that it will be remembered for the ages to come.

-David Roland