“There is always so much going on around town this time of year! Can you help me figure out how to balance fun time with downtime?”
I’m exhausted just thinking about how to answer your question! Living in such an option-rich community—where our cultural cup regularly overfloweth—can feel like both a blessing and a curse. Add the holidays into the mix, and we can all quickly find ourselves overwhelmed and under-rested.
Your concern, dear reader, seems to be less about FOMO and more about discernment—how to make the right decision for the right moment. We all want to do the fun stuff, but we’re also well aware of the limits to our carousing. Our mental, physical, and emotional health can tank before we know it, which is really the opposite of what we’re angling for. We know restraint matters, but it sure is elusive when facing the seasonal smorgasbord that is December in Ann Arbor.
Two people who gracefully and successfully toe that line are Brenda and Chuck Marshall, cofounders of the online magazine Life in Michigan. Brenda and Chuck are two of the busiest locals around, seemingly everywhere at once as they chronicle the “beauty and culture of Michigan” from their A2 HQ.
When asked how they manage their own play-life balance, Brenda is immediately empathetic, summing up how so many of us feel when choosing where and how to show up: “You just want to go to all of them, because you want to support all of them.”
“All” is clearly not an option, so Brenda likes to pick new events each year rather than trying to run the gamut. Using specific parameters for how you’ll spend your time can help take some pressure off the decision-making process, which as Chuck explains, helps you get “comfortable with the fact that you can’t do everything.”
Brenda also suggests getting clear about how long you’re actually willing and able to spend at an event. “Just because it’s a four-hour festival doesn’t mean I’m gonna do four hours of it, right? Sometimes you just have to know, like, after an hour, I’m done.” No one’s going to clock your attendance or issue you a social demerit for cutting out early (though thanking your host is always good form). Set yourself a curfew and stick to it.
If you want to get a little extra playful with your play, Chuck gamified the whole shebang for us: “Break out a little dice, pick five or six things that you think will look cool that day … roll … there you go.” Apparently, these two once planned an entire vacation using a ten-sided die, so don’t (or do!) be afraid to experiment with alternative applications.
Perhaps above all else, Brenda and Chuck favor serendipity as their holiday tour guide. “Some of the best things that we have experienced are things that we’ve just truly sort of stumbled upon,” says Brenda, with Chuck adding, “There’s something to be said for just being flexible with yourself.”
In this season of high-octane abundance, maybe that’s the greatest gift we can give ourselves—to just relax and roll with it.
Need Ann Arbor-ish advice? Email [email protected].