by: CORA TSO NAVAJO First Year Juris Doctor Candidate
burnout TRANSFORM SOCIETY
a story of reflection, rest & prayer
The 2017 year was amazing. I accomplished more than I ever thought I could and turned one of my lifelong dreams into reality. I was accepted into ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. However, this came at a high price. Once I began law school, my life changed. I was greeted with a highly competitive environment coupled with corresponding worries about failure, intimidation over instructional methods and curriculum, brutal workloads, and the overall adversarial nature of the legal system. These realties impacted my relationships, not only with myself, but also with those I love. I always felt confident in my abilities to perform academically because I believed in my ability to prepare and work hard. I soon learned that preparation was not enough. The ambitious attitude that once made me an “overachiever” in high school 10 S P R I N G 2 0 1 8
and college slowly began to dissolve. I somehow had to exceed “above and beyond.” This scenario caused me to doubt my abilities and my reasons for continuing a professional education. Ultimately, I burned out. Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and detachment, with feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. This stressful phenomenon can manifest itself in symptoms such as chronic fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness, impaired concentration, loss of appetite, anxiety, and depression. I learned that sometimes people do not even know that they are experiencing burnout. And sometimes people are aware of their feelings, but fear being labeled as “weak” or “depressed” and therefore remain silent. I was a combination of these people.
