boundaries

As with the past few days, I hope this makes sense to someone other than just me. My brain is now sick and medication riddled, so there are questions about how well my communication skills are working.

Boundaries.
What a sticky topic. Especially when it comes to relating to other people.
I didn't realize how few boundaries I had until I started actually having boundaries. Until I started thinking about what I thought was good for me and wasn't. Or thinking about what I actually like and dislike. Or what is important to me and isn't.

My recent realization has been time and that not everyone thinks about time the same way I do. In addition to my regularly scheduled day time activities, there are a number of things I like to do with the rest of my day, some of them needs, some of them wants. I am a person who prefers going home at night, and actually being at home, not "taking the office home" with me. I like to take that time to make good meals, bake, play with the cat, read, watch various brain rot, etc. But in the setting I'm in now, not many people seem to feel the same way I do. Or rather, they pay lip service to their needs and wants being important to them. They say one thing, but their actions speak differently. I say making good food is important to me, so I set aside time to do so. In my list of priorities, it is a very high one. I'd like to say exercise is too, but as evidenced by my growing waste line, it's actually lower on the list than many other things (I'm trying to change this, but as we all know, it's hard to change old habits).

Where my old confusion lay was hearing people say that doing certain things was important to them, but they didn't make time for it. I'm back in school. It's VERY important to me, but I also have learned that there are certain things, that if I do them, make me a much saner person (cook, bake, play with the cat). So while I do think working hard at school is extremely important, so is taking good care of myself (though I do have to say that if I were still working, I would have taken today off rather than drag my butt to school).

My frustration: I've had many "older" students (most of them are actually younger than me, but they are further along in the program) keep telling me that I too will be there late nights just like them. While I'm sure there will be a few, I get frustrated that they try to pin this on me. I don't see it as a badge of honor and I it really frustrates me that I can't see to explain to these people that taking care of myself is more important than spending a night late at school trying to solve something that probably won't be solved any way because I'll be so annoyed that I'm there and not at home enjoying 'me time'.

So I guess thats one of my boundaries. I need time so that I can have me time.