My Burnout Story #1: The Day Someone Saw What I Couldn't
Burnout didn't arrive with a dramatic moment. It didn't announce itself. It had been quietly building inside me until one ordinary day, someone else saw it before I did.
EDUCATORS' BURN OUT
7/16/20262 min read
A colleague came to me and said, "I thought of you, and I think you need help. Do you need help? If I were you, I would burn out."
She knew because she had experienced burnout herself couple of years before. She recognized the signs that I couldn't see.
For the first time, I answered honestly.
"Yes."
She immediately rearranged my responsibilities so I could take two days off. At the time, I was working as a preschool teacher.
Two days may not sound like much, but to me, they felt enormous.
I have always been a very responsible person. From elementary school through university, I hardly ever missed a day of school. Being absent felt like failure. Taking time off from work felt shameful. I believed I should always be able to keep going, no matter how difficult things became.
But the truth was, I couldn't keep going anymore.
Those two mornings, I sat in my bathtub with the shower running and cried.
I didn't have the energy to do anything else.
I couldn't even pray.
Yet somehow, I knew my Lord was with me.
There were no words, no long prayers, no strength left in me. I simply sat quietly in His presence, and He sat with me.
Looking back, I think of those moments like a tiny, powerless piece of metal resting beside a magnet. The metal has no strength of its own, yet simply being close to the magnet changes it. That is how I experienced Jesus. I had nothing left to give, but simply staying close to Him gave me the strength I needed to continue.
Two days later, I returned to the preschool.
Nothing had really changed. My workload was still heavy.
A coworker had returned to her home country because of a personal situation and wasn't able to come back, so I had been carrying responsibilities meant for more than one person. That hadn't changed.
But something else had.
My colleagues and the parents finally understood that my role wasn't easy. They saw what I had been carrying. Most importantly, I realized that asking for help is not weakness.
Sometimes, the strongest thing we can do is admit that we have reached our limit.
Burnout taught me that we are not meant to carry everything alone. It also reminded me that God's presence is not measured by how beautifully we pray or how strong we feel. Sometimes faith is simply sitting quietly in His presence when we have no words left.
Those two days didn't solve every problem. But they gave me enough strength to take the next step. And sometimes, the next step is enough.
If this story resonates with you, I invite you to listen to "Never Alone," a song I wrote inspired by this experience. I hope it reminds you that even in your quietest, hardest moments, our Lord never leaves your side. Listen here: Never Alone (YouTube)