We all know that college is the time to prepare yourself for the professional world– whether that be in joining clubs, Greek life, pre-professional societies, doing internships, or community service projects. The goal is to get ahead. To be the best in order to get the best job. Sometimes we get so caught up in adding experiences to our resume that we don’t take time to experience what college life has to offer.
My ambition for success has helped me gain so many great opportunities and thus created even more options for me to continue to get involved. Along with those, I tend to get labeled as a someone who can “do-it-all.” This puts me in situations where I have a hard time turning people down when they ask me to help out, get more involved, or take on another leadership position. I feel genuinely upset when I can’t find time in my schedule to help someone.
My biggest piece of advice to a hard-working college girl is to just say no. Something so simple can be the most difficult thing to do. You can feel like you’re letting someone down, or that you’re giving up an amazing opportunity to further yourself. But in the long run you’ll thank me.
Saying no can help save you time, stress and overall your sanity. I have found after the past four years that it is not how much you have on your resume but what you can personally attest to and the experiences within the things you have on your resume that makes a company want to hire you. If you can’t give a detailed explanation on what you accomplished from being apart of something, don’t even bother putting it on your resume. If all you can say was that you were barely a member but hey it looks good on my resume, maybe think about letting that go.
The more time you can invest in one or two things the better. This will allow you to get more out of your experiences and actually enjoy your time outside of them. I have run myself to the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with all the things I put on my plate and I sometimes feel like I’ve missed out on some of the best parts about being at CMU.
So, from here on out, I am saying no. Saying no to more work and yes to more fun. Here are a few things I hope to do more of with my extra free time next semester.
Actually being able to go to The Bird with my friends
I don’t know how many times I’ve missed out on such a simple thing just because of late night meetings or last minute study sessions because I had no other time to do it than Thursday bar nights.
Have time to read a good book
I used to love to read! Over the summer I went to a local bookstore back in my hometown to try and re-spark my long lost love for reading. But I haven’t been able to actually read any of them because of how busy my schedule is. I can’t wait to light a candle and cozy up!
Go home and see my parents
My mom and dad always say they never see me, and they are right. I love my family and now I’ll have time to go home on a few weekends and actually enjoy seeing them without worrying that i should be doing something else.
Focus on my grades
Now that I don’t have as much on my plate I can really focus on getting my GPA up before I graduate.
Focus on my mental and physical health
I always made the excuse that I couldn’t go to the gym because that was just one more thing to add into my busy schedule. Now, I can focus on improving myself. To go along with that, actually taking time to relax, journal and meditate will do wonders for my mental health.