So here’s the thing they don’t tell you about growing up: it is difficult. Extremely difficult. As difficult as getting up early on a rainy Monday because your first class is across campus. Or as difficult as saying no to your friends, who are finally going to check out that new Thai place you have heard so much about the day before your Calculus exam. However, the sacrifices that you have to make as you grow up get less and less trivial as more important choices come into play, and it is very easy to get lost among them. Judging between what is most productive and what is most fun is often easy, however following through with those judgements is the hard part. No one wants to be known as the party pooper of the group who always sits at home and does work. Yet no one wants to be known as the person who always goes out and throws their responsibilities to the wind.
So finding some balance is pretty essential. The thing is, no one can tell you how to find that balance. You have to do that yourself, and as I have come to find, it is not easy. So when I first got to college, I vowed I was going to get it right. I started off with focusing on only schoolwork. I made sure I read through everything that I could possibly read, went to every single office hour, and worked on homeworks days in advance to try and stay ahead. I felt like a hermit: it was just me and my books in a little bubble. But that bubble was not a comfortable place to be. It was stressful; reading paragraphs of dry scholarly writing over and over again makes the brain go numb.
I ended up cutting out a lot of my extracurricular activities that I had joined and had grown to enjoy, and saw my friends less and less because I was so consumed with this idea of a perfect GPA. Yet the unhappiness that came with it was constantly over my head. My bubble had formed into a dark cloud hovering over my shoulders. I called my parents more and more saying I wanted to go home. Yet after all of that stressing, I still did not have perfect grades. So I figured, why not live a little if I can’t be perfect anyway. That ended up much like this:
That’s because it is so much easier to say yes to distractions than it is to say no. When you work so hard for little result, it is easy to put off what should be a priority. Distractions have a snowball effect, that in college, leave you scrambling hours before a four page Philosophy paper is due trying to make sure you actually addressed the prompt correctly. I was having more fun, this is true, but my focus was not where it should be, and deep down, I knew that. So I had a choice to make, and coming into this semester, I knew what I had to do: refocus.
Refocusing is probably one of the hardest things to do, especially because no one can tell you what is going to work best for you. I compiled a list of all the things I had to prioritize, and starting from the top, found a way to incorporate everything into a working, yet not totally crammed schedule. I slowly started adding extracurriculars back into my life, which made focusing on schoolwork a lot easier. Also, I found a place to study where I could not be distracted for maximum productivity. This is what I needed to do get myself back on track. It may not be what everyone needs, but I think that especially during this time of our lives where our choices shape the people we will become in our future, we should really be considerate of how we lead our lives.
In the end, when we look back on our college years, we want to be able to do so with a smile. There should be some great memories made with great people, and there should be a sprinkle or two of academic endeavors as well. If you stay true to yourself, and what you know will work best for you in the end, then you’re golden. However, don’t be afraid to refocus if you need to. It is easy to get lost in the tumbling world of college, so take a deep breath, and think about you for a change, and what you need to do to get yourself back on track. You’ll be thankful you did; I know I am.
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