Life never comes back to where it started

I find myself reflecting upon work loads between every grade.  Inevitably, the workload only gets heavier and heavier every year.  

I suppose workload is always proportional to the grade one is in.  This past term I’ve been spending about five hours per night on homework, which is without a doubt overwhelming.  In addition, I am enrolled in a fitness class, I take piano lessons, which lends itself to daily trips to Graves to practice, and I do a couple different clubs.  Life is going on a roller coaster, checklist after checklist.  When I stop to think about what I’ve accomplished, I feel very busy.  But when I think back to previous years, I remember feeling very similarly, as if I am always working at my maximum.    

I talked to my friend about this and she said that busyness is proportional to grade; I will forever be busy.  For example, I remember in eighth grade being very overwhelmed with work and extra circulars.  I thought I’d reached my max.  But now that I’m older, the workload capacity has increased proportionally to my new max.  Each year, I attain new “maxs”.  I will have to hope that this is sustainable when I enter future years of high school. 

But life doesn’t only get harder academically.  In the workforce, paying taxes, managing money, meeting deadlines, and maintaining a balanced lifestyle will be the new “max” I have to reach.   By the time people are old, they’ll have to manage their health.  Keeping the body and mind healthy will become the new “max”.  

I thought life would eventually slow down with age.  Life would become more stable, and there would be fewer things to worry about.  I thought I maybe life would get easier, and that maybe now is just a difficult time.  Stability is what I hoped for.  Maybe I've got stability.  Nevertheless, when I stop and reflect, I realize that once life has taken off, it never really comes back to where it started.