A few words of exchange between the father and the son here, on burning out from going to school, and going to work, translated…
Summer: daddy, because of the X’s and the O’s, I don’t want to go to school.
Me: why do the X’s and O’s make you not want to go to school?
Summer: because it makes school feel so long, I feel tired.
Me: what is “too long for school” for you?
Summer: going to school from Monday to Thursday, it’d felt, never ending.
Me: is that so…if daddy feels tired of the X’s and O’s, and felt that I’m too, fatigued from working, and not go to work, would that be good?
Summer: (a bit surprised) can you do that?
what burnout for a child looks like
Me: but if I don’t work, there’s no money coming in, you can’t buy that t buy that speed-altering bicycle, can’t take your tennis lessons, nor can you go to the hot springs either, you will be, three sheets to the wind.
Summer: (lowering his head), what does three sheets to the wind mean?
I’d slowly pulled the car over to the shoulder, then, rolled down the window…
Me: open your mouth now, and you can, get a feel of what three-sheets to the wind feels like.
Summer stealthily smiled a bit, but quickly, returned, to his, frowning, depressed looks, thought for a very long time then opened up.
Summer: would it only be for breakfast then?
Me: (three lines down my face: XXOO…………), not just for breakfasts, lunch, dinner, all three of your meals, and your midnight snacks too!
Before I explain this, I need to explain the XXOO.
In Summer’s younger grade years, and, he’d bumped into those things, those people who’d, upset him, and he could classify them into circles and x’s. For instance, he’d grown his hair long, and everybody jokingly called him a girl. He’d started playing soccer in the first grade, a slow-to-warm-up child, spending a ton of time with his fellow classmates, but still worked hard, tried, to get to know how to interact with his peers, along with adapting to life in a group in his elementary years.
From the above, was the possible reasons I got, from my conversation with him.
That morning, as I drove to the magazines to work, I’d, given him a lift to school. As we set out, before he got into my car, he’d, mentioned how he was a bit, fatigued from going to school every day. I’d, mumbled inside: so soon, you’re only, in the lower grades of the elementary years, you’re talking to me about, burning out already? That school without the fences, with tons of interesting elective classes, so many children of his same age, he should be loving school. I’m very certain, that all the kids need to attend that public, school in the forests.
It’s just, that this “firm belief” of mine, I’d, needed to think, more thoroughly on. I’d asked myself, I’d worked in a higher up position in the magazine shop, with a high-enough pay, and everybody I work with, are like characters out of Tim Burton’s “Ms. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”, the CEO, the CFO both have the qualities of aliens, because the multitude of contacts we come into……more precisely, we are involved in an assortment of situations, people in various stages, means of life, it’s, really, very, colorful. And who wouldn’t want to work in this sort of an office?
and for the adults???
Yeah, from the outside, everything is peachy. But, those of you who are, continually, fighting in your lives, must know: there’s no way to escape the trials that life hands to you. Maybe, in the elementary schools, there are, similar things that are, going on, everybody wants to skip that class. The key is, those bratty kids are just like us, adults, would become, overloaded, I think, burning out would be, a rough sort of an explanation for this. But, it does, happen, doesn’t it? The Greek God, Zeus, he’d gotten bored, and skipped work, come down to earth, and, impregnated mortal women for fun, and could it be that he has access to Tinder, and skipped home straight out of, Mount Olympus.
Summer, who’s growing up in supersonic speed, must be feeling this burnout of what was once new, more so than me, who’d been, around a lot longer. I’d, neglected to note this. He just couldn’t, describe precisely how he’d felt, burned out, and how to, wind himself back up again. Up to here, we’re, getting, serious again. We thought back, the subject: a debate on how to live, three sheets to the wind? The answer is quite clear, nobody can live, three sheets to the wind. Discussion over! But that day, as I drove down the winding Xinwu Road, I’d asked Summer: “then, do you want daddy to go to work?”, with that look of fatigue, he’d, nodded toward me, and so, I can, only, be happy, get myself to work, at the, magazines.
And so, this showed, of how we don’t have a choice, but to work, work, work, to study, study, study, depending on the various stages of life we’re on, and that’s, just how we are groomed, to run this, rat race, so that’s why, we need to, add a little fun in our lives, do something out of the ordinary every now and then, to spice things up a bit, otherwise, we would all get, burned out, and burned, DOWN!
Life, the Obstacle Course 