Balancing Work and Play

Picture this: it’s your senior year of college, you’re freshly 21, and you are the happiest that you have ever been. On top of that, you have roommates you love, budding relationships, etc. Then you remember that it’s not the only thing that you’re here for. Fun is sadly a secondary value when in college, which is something I find myself constantly forgetting. 

While moving into this new semester and sadly my final one, I’m trying to practice better ways of keeping everything in line. It’s important to still find time to take care of yourself, but finding ways to still get everything done before that is key.

I realized that this was starting to become a problem for me at the end of last semester. I realized that I was developing a horrifying case of senioritis. Every time that I had class I was thinking about how my friends were at home hanging out without me, or when I was at work and they would be able to do more with their day than I did. It was really hard to find motivation to continue going to the things that I was responsible for. 

There was still hope. Here’s my guide to turning this whole “FOMO” thing around!

1. Get things done early in the week. It makes it much easier to go out and have fun with your friends when you can get started early and focus on it less. It also helps to lessen stress than knowing that your assignments are all piled up at the end of the week.
2. Find fun ways and gratifying ways of getting your work done. If you tell yourself that you can go get a sweet treat with your friends after doing an assignment, it’s more motivating to do so. Also focusing on what it does for you helps too. Knowing that everything that I do now is helping me to get a brighter future set up for myself instantly snaps me back into it.
3. Making plans to go and study with friends! Even if it’s sitting on the same couch as your roommates doing homework all together, it helps to know that they are also doing the same things that you are and are working towards similar goals as you. 
4. Make friends at work or in your classes. Once I started making friends with different people in my classes, it made it more fun to go and sit down next to them in a space where I know I will probably only see them. It also makes it really fun when you see them around campus and when you give a quick wave to each other. 
5. Get to know your professors. The more that I get to know certain professors, the more inclined I am to go to their classes. Staying after to say thank you or looking at them more during class really does make the experience mean more in general and makes their day too! 

Obviously, these are all ever evolving. There are days where I can’t get out of my bed just because I know that my computer is dead and my covers are the perfect temperature. The best thing to do in these next months and as you go through your college journey is to give yourself grace. If you become too hard on yourself, it can kill all that motivation that you’ve been trying to create. I know that whenever I have been too hard on myself, it leads to me cracking vs. building myself up. When giving yourself time to try and fail, it leads to more success and more growth in general. 

It’s also important to remember that college won’t always be there, but the education you gain from it and the friendships you collect will always be there for you after you leave!

• college
• friendship
• graduation
• mental health