Oftentimes, I compare my weekend life with the other weekend lives of the typical college student. It’s an odd thing because I am not a big fan of what the majority of people seem to enjoy.
It’s not that I don’t want to be a fan of it, I just personally would not enjoy that lifestyle. For me, the weekend is a time to catch up on sleep, do work for the week coming ahead, exercise, and practice self-care. I don’t go out much at night because I am usually exhausted from the week before. I have mixed feelings about this, because these days someone’s “weekend plans” makes them different or an out of the ordinary college student.
My mom helped me think of it another way though: If I was out living a crazy night life at college, I would be even more physically and mentally drained than I already am week to week. I don’t know if I would even enjoy it or think that it was a good use of my time.
And I don’t even know if I would enjoy it or not. Maybe for all I know, I would, and maybe someday I will, have to put it to action and try it. But for the time being, as a freshman taking 17.5 credits, that lifestyle does not seem to be in the cards for me.
I care deeply about my academics being a STEM major studying Kinesiology so for right now that is the main focus of my time and even though that is different from a lot of people’s focus, I’ve learned to realize that that is completely okay and normal.
Even though it feels like I’m basically living the adult life of working seven days a week and primarily focusing my life on work, I feel that that’s okay for right now considering I have an incredibly important goal in mind.
I aspire to one day become a physical therapist. As of now, I have a guaranteed seat in the program as long as I maintain specific GPAs and so forth, but honestly for me the biggest thing motivating me is not the GPA. It is the actual information that is so motivating. I WANT to be learning what I am and think that that is the coolest thing ever. So, even though I work on my academics a crazy amount, it does not even feel like it sometimes because learning and applying knowledge from my studies is the best feeling ever.
I may not live the typical college-life weekend, but I am putting my heart and soul into what I am learning and growing alongside it. So, for right now I am okay with being different. If I had decided to try to be like everyone else in the whole adapting-to-college process, I might’ve run
the risk of losing myself and losing my PASSION for what I love. So, in my case I feel I am in a good spot for the time being.
I am definitely open to experimenting as time goes on when I feel better adapted to my area of study but for right now, I am okay with utilizing my time the way I have been. I love to study the things that are interesting to me and spend time with my two good friends in between that. It sounds different and odd, but to me it’s who I am.