6.15.25: Burnout Is Real

Burnout doesn’t arrive with sirens. It creeps. You wake up tired, ignore it. Miss a deadline, brush it off. Soon you’re canceling plans and forgetting birthdays. You call it a rough week, then a rough month. Eventually, you’re watching your life from the back row—detached, distracted, weirdly numb. Friends ask how you’re doing. You say “busy.” What you mean is: “barely.” But busy sounds better. So you keep going, hoping a day off will fix it. It won’t. Not if your worth is measured in output. Not if rest feels like failure. You’re not lazy. You’re exhausted. There’s a difference.