Opportunity is like Pi...

... It keeps on coming.

So sometimes when Opportunity knocks, lock the door, shut the blinds, crawl into the darkest corner of your house and just pray it goes away before you schedule yet another thing into your already overbooked iCal.

Because, let's be honest, if you're doing everything, are you enjoying anything?

My boyfriend hates planning. I don't mean he hates all plans or plans in general - there are certain things that he likes to know - he likes to know that he's getting a paycheck, that he's going to see his apartmentmates when he gets home at night, that we're going to hang out sometime this weekend, etc. It's details that he doesn't like getting hung up on.

I'm almost the opposite. I love plans. I love having them and I love keeping them. When he says, "Wouldn't it be fun to go to the Bronx Zoo sometime this summer?" and it's August and we haven't gone yet I think, "Wait, wait, when are we going to the zoo? How about Saturday? Or does Sunday work better for you? We could get up early, stay until mid-afternoon, then maybe hit the Staten Island Ferry or walk across the Brooklyn Bridge because we were going to do that, too, remember?" I like getting things done. I like doing things. I get anxious if I have an too unplanned of a day. Why? Because it's fun to do fun things. If it's snowing, it's fun to make a snowman. And if it's your birthday, it's fun to have a party and bake cupcakes.

The thing is, though, a lot of times unexpected things pop up, and in a life filled with plans, you suddenly have too much at the same time - but you'd hate to miss out.

You think, well, I'm going to take it easy this summer, snag an internship or two, maybe take a class here or there, but mostly hang out with my friends and enjoy my first summer out of college. But right after you sign up for Improv 101, Sketch 301 pops up with a great teacher and you think - 2 classes that overlap isn't that much, why not? How often does this come up? And then after you accept your 1st internship, another 2 pop up, but they're via email, so that hardly counts as work! And then a group asks you to shoot some videos for them and they're so funny and nice - how could you say no? So you say yes. And you keep saying yes. And you notice how your one internship and one class turned into 3 and 2 and a side project and whatever happened to that screenplay you were going to finish? To that camp visit you were going to make? To that vacation to San Diego?

And while you're having fun, and working (very) hard, your sketches aren't great because you only worked on them for 3 hours and your pitches aren't hot because you only worked on them for 5 and your invovlement in all of your activities is borderline tangential no matter how hard you try to dive in because you simply don't have time in your schedule.

So pause. And think. Hard. Because yes, you want to say yes, and yes, you do want to do all of these things, but the opportunities will keep coming even if you have to partially shut the door on one just to stop the onslaught of activities from piling up. And then you really can devote yourself to your work, and your friends, and your (lovely) boyfriend and family and all of those things you care about because there are only so many of them and only one of you and you all have just 24 hours in a day and barely 3 months of summer (2 if you discount the rain-fest that was June).

And while that same opportunity (job, connection, vacation, class, etc) may not pop up again, just remember that as long as you aren't burning bridges, you can always find something similar. Because when opportunity knocks, it really looks a lot more like the CutCo salesman than the Prize Patrol from Publisher's Clearing House. He'll be back next summer. Same knives. Same deal. And maybe next summer you'll actually have time to cook with them.

Just something to think about.