Wishing for the weekend is something we're not even supposed to be doing, and especially in college! You haven't even gotten to fully experience everything. These are the times in your life when you're supposed to be flying down the highway with the wind in your hair without a care in the world (except your homework and tests, of course). So how do we fix this?
Knowing how to distribute your time is ESSENTIAL. So when you go sign up for classes, read reviews on sites like ratemyprofessors.com. Take a notebook with you when you go to sign up and estimate an hour and a half of study time per night per class. Yes, I know this seems like a lot of time to devote but it is better to over-estimate than underestimate (this is what gets us back at ground zero). Speaking of underestimating, NEVER underestimate a professor. Your future professor may have excellent reviews, even a review that says the class is a lot of easy work but guess what? It may not be easy to you. Another thing that stumps students completely is a review that says "a lot of busy easy work, like a high school class." So this may be true, but having easy work still does not make up for the "busy" part and you can expect to invest a ton of your time. Another easy tip for not crushing yourself to death with work is to take the syllabus seriously. When the syllabus is available, grab it! Take it home or print it out and then combine all of your next semester syllabi into one. This will show you how much (and how much at one time) you will be looking at. Maybe one week down the road will be consumed with five tests. Yes! This really happens. So if this combined syllabus doesn't work for you toss a class before the final drop/add date.
Now lets talk about working. I would not recommend working full-time while in school. Yes, I've tried it, yes it was exhausting, yes I got through it, yes my GPA suffered, and yes I wished my days away. So if you're okay with having mediocre grades, no social life, and giving up substantial amounts of sleep then by all means jump off of that cliff. (Unless you're enrolled in night school- you might just be able to swing by with great grades and loads of money in your pocket) But lets face it, don't we have the rest of our lives to work full time jobs? So right now let college be our full time job, it's really for the best. So you need extra money? There are TONS of ways to make money. First, you can tutor, you can blog (that's right, companies will pay you), you can sign up for online reviews, you can get a job on campus, you can get a job close to campus. All are completely acceptable as long as they don't make you want to wish your days away. Any job you have will look wonderful on your resume as long as you kept it for a while. How many hours should I work? Well, that one is up to you, I prefer to work at least 20 hours a week and that gives me enough time to do my school work, spend a little time with friends, and make money. Balance is key. Remember, don't work so much you begin to despise the job, fall in school, and continuously say "no" to your friends about going out. You don't want these years to be so busy that you can't look back and remember a good time. This is college we're talking about.
So as I wrap up my first Life Lesson Wednesday I stress to you that your happiness depends on your own balancing of your time and schedule. Don't beat yourself up if you have to drop a class, limit your working hours, or even drop out of a club. Yes, you're going to school for your future but live right now.
Don't succumb to wishing your days away. Yes, better days will come but you also have to remember: today is pretty spectacular too.
Just for you,
M.
P.S. If you have a life lesson you want to share with the crowd or even personally, send me an email at morganra0222@gmail.com and we'll share your story with the world. Who knows? Someone might need to hear what you have to say.