It’s September 1. Which means summer is officially over and Halloween is basically tomorrow. Pumpkin Spice lattes are back on the menus of Starbucks’ everywhere, Christian girl core is about to make a resurgence, and it’s only a matter of weeks before Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You beckons the arrival of the Holidays, which means New Year’s Eve, which means 2024. As the last of the crisp summer nights slip through my fingertips, tourists quietly disperse back home, and students start pouring back into the city as they gear up for a new school year, I earnestly yearn for just a few more days of summer— a few more days of uninterrupted bliss at home and respite from the pressures of modern life.
You see, minus a three-week stint in Paris in July, my entire summer was spent indoors at my sister’s residence in Dubai. I could probably count on one hand the amount of outings I made between July 10, when I came back to the city, to the present moment. No, I didn’t have to self-isolate after catching the latest wave of Covid sweeping the globe; Nor have I undergone some kind of surgery that requires a period of rehabilitation. After a long, and emotionally-taxing year, the only thing I wanted to do was… absolutely nothing.
Unlike the previous summers, this year, I had zero desire to go on an exotic girl’s trip, shake my ass on a yacht, or exchange phone numbers with foreign boys I would never see again (this would shock two-years-ago me). Maybe this all comes with entering your 30s, but the hustle has indeed lost its luster. Instead, my days, when I wasn’t working, were spent writing, playing silly games with my nine-month-old niece, and curling up on the sofa (or by the pool) with a thought-provoking book. Meanwhile, my evenings were reserved for doom-scrolling TikTok (also on the sofa, or sometimes, in bed) or shopping SSENSE sales. If my friends wanted to see me, which they often did, they would have to come over. After spending nearly every waking moment at school and then work over the last couple of decades, not having to exert any energy feels like a major privilege.
According to the Internet, my favorite pastime has a name and it’s “bed rotting,” a phrase coined by users of Gen Z-dominated social media platform TikTok that refers to wasting away beneath your cozy blanket for extended periods of time, even when you’re not sleeping. A self-care trend of sorts, bed rotting is an intentional form of being unproductive and is encouraged for those who feel stressed or burnt out as a way to recharge.
A burnout, the World Health Organization (WHO), states, isn’t just a mindset, it’s a syndrome. More directly, it’s “conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress.” A number of surveys have found that more than 50% of people have experienced a burnout as a result of school or their workplace. Taking time for yourself is extremely vital, say several experts. And although there is no quick-fix for this state of exhaustion, many would agree that slowing down, taking a break, and making time for self-care (whatever this looks like to you) can be super beneficial when you find yourself in this condition.
However, it goes without saying that too much time spent in self-imposed isolation is not good for you, especially if it interferes with your work, social life, and family time. In some cases, not being interested in doing anything all day could be a sign of more serious mental health issues such as depression; But, I seemed to have found a sweet balance where I was still fulfilling my responsibilities and nurturing my connections, while finding time to truly relax and unwind. And now that September is here, bringing with it looming deadlines and a long winter ahead, future me is going to be so grateful to the past version of me for making the decision to replace hot girl summer in favor of rot girl summer. Doing nothing for the last two months allowed me to recharge my batteries so that I will have the energy to take on whatever this upcoming busy season brings— in the meantime, I still have some nothing that needs to get done.
