Living in the name of...

I've been thinking about personal sacrifice lately, perhaps influenced by this House episode. How far can a person go in benefit of others, in spite of her own? How fair is it for someone to not live his life, so he can improve or save the lives of others? And how can we judge such a thing?

Some researchers live entirely for their research. They abdicate completely from their social life, and many times from family life and even family duties to work, work and work. The problem is that this way might be a necessary evil for mankind. The most useful breakthroughs in science usually come with a huge effort, with a lot of sacrifice from cientists.

So how can we know which side to take? If we're doing something that might be useful to people, or even paramount for some, one may need to live for that work, instead of work for a living. But some are just not meant to do that.

I realized that I don't want that for my life. Of course, this cannot be confused with laziness. I know I must work, and work hard, to be successful. But that doesn't mean I must jeopardize every other aspect of my life for it.

I have spent very little time with my family since I entered college. I've distanced myself from them, always due to the immense amount of work and assignments I always had to do. Even when I had free time, I was always so tired that I just sat in my room away from them. Not to mention cousins and aunts whom I like very much but hardly ever see or spend time with. The same applies to my friends.

My hobbies were also left a bit aside, namely playing videogames, riding my bike around town and learning new languages. I tried getting back to those three after I graduated from college and started working on my masters, but that proved difficult, since now I seem to have even more work and research to do. But it's better than it used to be, at least.

So my decision is to enjoy my life as much as I can. I will try to enjoy things more, to go out more with my friends and to be happier than I think I currently am. I need this, otherwise I'd crack and then things would get really ugly. And my advice is: think about your life, about what you're doing and if you think that's what you want. Don't be afraid to judge yourself and, mainly, to change if you see fit. Life's too short, and we must be sure that what we're doing is fulfilling or not.