Homecoming is the one time of the year where everyone can have fun and find something to do, but how can you enjoy the fun if you’re stressing about that assignment you got or that class you got? It’s important to find a balance or else you’re gonna be battling between class and homecoming and no one wants to do that.
Homecoming usually consists of week long events happening at all different times starting from the middle of the day to being out as late as midnight. How do you balance it? It’s so much to worry about. You have to figure out your outfits for the week, which events you’re going to attend, how much money you need to save up for these events, time for classes and assignments, as well as having time for yourself.
Homecoming is a lot and can be draining on top of being extremely stressful.
To avoid that stress though, I’ve come up with a few tips to help overcome the stress that comes with homecoming. Most of the events at Bowie State University that took place throughout the day (food trucks, a DTLR event, and a pop up shop) all took place in the middle of the day while most people were in class ranging between two pm to five pm. The events that happened at night mostly started at eight or nine pm and went to eleven pm or midnight and those events were the step show, talent show, coronation, concert, and after party.
Events are happening almost everyday, all day, and that can be hard when you have class but really wanna attend a certain event with friends. I know personally that there were some events I did attend and some that I had to turn down due to having homework or class. To properly prepare for homecoming so you don’t get stuck not being able to go to an event or missing out on class and homework, have a routine that goes with homecoming, but also still works with your daily life during that week.
First thing you want to do is gather up all the upcoming dates and times for homecoming that are happening and write them down or put them in your phone, then you are going to look at your class schedule and see what days you have class and times for that week. Once you have gathered all the dates and times for each one you will be able to see which events you can and can’t attend, after figuring out what events you will not be able to attend due to class you stick to that.
Going to an event is not worth missing class because it causes future stress down the line because you could have missed out on really important information for that class. Even though it can be hard to be disciplined and not skip, it will help out later on down the week and know that there will be other events that might be similar to the one you missed.
The next thing to go over is what assignments do you have that week that are due, any homework? Projects? Discussion post? Anything along those lines you want to look at. Write those due dates down on your calendar in your planner or reminders on your phone wherever you think will help best.
If you notice that it’s monday, homecoming just started and the concert is on thursday and you have an assignment due that night of the concert. Start working on that assignment on monday just get it out the way! If you see that you have work due days before an event you want to attend, don’t wait till the day of the event and the day the assignment is due to start working on it just get it out the way beforehand. It will save you a lot of time and stress doing your assignments in advance so you’re not focussing on them the day of and trying to get ready stressing about how you’re going to somehow do both.
Lastly, just practice good time management. It can be really hard sometimes to focus on school and a social life as well and can just overall be overwhelming. The most important thing is to plan as much as you can in advance, figure out what events you want to attend and see if you can, write down or put in your phone the times you have class, the times the events are, as well as what assignments you have due that week so when homecoming approaches you aren’t stressed.
Missing one event during homecoming isn’t a huge deal, it’s ok to miss one due to class or cause you need to study for a test. You can still make your homecoming enjoyable even if you can go to everything. If you and your friends know you all have work due one night, you all can meet up and have a study or homework session and play some music and still make it fun.
Your friends can even help hold you accountable for staying on top of your studies and you can do the same for them. Homecoming is a lot of fun but it’s even more fun when you aren’t stressed about school, so take the steps and prepare in advance to have an amazing and memorable time at homecoming.