Coming back from winter break, I looked forward to resuming my regular routine. It felt like the first day of school all over again, and the idea of going to new classes and meeting new people was energizing. Needless to say, I was actually excited to start the spring semester.
The night before the first day of classes, I was that girl writing down her schedule on the white board in her room. While doing so, I realized how busy I was going to be this semester, and how difficult the workload would be. The semester hadn’t even started yet, and I was psyched out.
The next morning, I woke up feeling a mix of excitement and nerves. Walking into the classroom, sitting down, meeting the people around me, and hearing my professor talk, put me more at ease. However, over the next few days, I discovered that adjusting to new classes and a new semester would not be easy. Syllabus week was more stressful than I anticipated, and the excitement of a new semester wore off as assignments, due dates, exam dates, and quizzes, flew at me from all different angles.
During the first two weeks of spring semester, I slowly began to fall behind the rest of my peers academically. Realizing that I needed to reduce my stress level, I took a step back to breathe, and revived my trusty blue floral print planner. To help me navigate through the rest of the semester, I wrote down all my due dates, exams, quizzes, and assignments, mapping out the first few weeks. I figured out what days would be best to work on each class, and finish each assignment. By the third week, I was feeling less overwhelmed and even found time to go to the gym in the morning. Unfortunately, I was still struggling to complete many assignments. It seemed like my peers had it all figured out, and I did not.
It’s now the fourth week of school, and I still have to look at my schedule before I leave for class each day. I’m slowly starting to understand my assignments, and although I still haven’t found a solid routine, I’ve come to the realization that everything will be okay. Adjusting to school again takes work, and everyone does it at a different pace.