Whenever someone thinks of college or university, they usually think of school almost as if it were a 9 to 5 job – you have a lecture or two in the morning, then an hour to chill and eat lunch, followed by the rest of the afternoon attending tutorials or labs. Before you know it, you’ve hopped on the bus just before rush hour hits, grabbed the very last seat you’ve been eyeing (because you don’t want to stand for the entire bus ride down the mountain), and you head on home.
Basically, I did this for my entire first year at SFU, after transferring from a small post-secondary institution in Greater Vancouver. All three semesters last year followed this sort of routine, and when course selection came around late this summer, I was mentally preparing for what I was going to go through again this fall…
Except my fall semester schedule – that I had planning out for almost the entire summer semester – backfired on me.
Initially, I had planned on taking only three courses and balancing work and extracurriculars, as usual. However, two of the courses I had planned to take this semester put me on a waitlist – no big deal. Except it was; those two courses are competitive to get into if you’re no longer first-year student. Unfortunately, these courses are pre-requisites for many other courses I will be taking later on in my undergrad. So, after many fruitless talks with advisors over email and in-person, I was forced to accept the fact that my semester was going to look very different than previous years.
So now I will be going to school part-time – something I have never done before, and something I am unsure of even wanting to do. In my mind, I was thinking, “What’s the point of taking only two classes in the fall while everyone is studying their butts off?” as well as many haunting thoughts of how taking only two courses would “delay my graduation even more”, since I had plans of doing co-op from the very beginning when I first attended SFU. My mentality was basically, if I was not in school full-time, I should be working full-time or I should be on a co-op term by now.
Only, I’m working part-time too. And I’m not on co-op yet since I’m planning on doing co-op in Fall 2019, and by now, it would be way too late to find a last-minute co-op placement. Essentially, I feel like I’m behind schedule.
These were all thoughts I had in the first week of September. Flash forward to present day and guess what, it’s November – less than a month until the fall semester ends. Now I am absolutely loving the part-time student life and living it to the fullest. It has given me the time to do things that I could have never done or accomplished if I had taken a full course load once again. It has given me more flexibility and time to spend with my friends and loved ones, which is very important coming from a household that puts a high value on family before anything else. Most importantly, being a part-time student has alleviated my stress. I am not the type of person to stress myself overly when it comes to schoolwork, but the fact that I don’t have readings upon readings to finish gives me so much relief.
So, if you are absolutely tired of being burnt out from the commute to and from campus five days a week, drowning in papers, assignments, and midterms, worry no more – you can make the most out of a reduced semester too!
Why should you take up part-time studies?
You can work more if you want to save up for items on your wish list or take a trip.
I used to get frustrated at myself for not having enough money in the bank until:
- I realized I was not budgeting properly, and
- I was not working enough to have a disposable income that I was really comfortable with.
Back when I was taking a full course load, I used to work at least one weekday and one weekend. But now with my changed schedule I can work at least three times a week – with shift lengths up to eight hours.
These extra hours at work are helpful in using up my new-found spare time, now that I’m not spending 5-10 hours a week on readings or practicing math problems for a midterm coming up.
If you have some items you’ve been wanting to purchase, like that snazzy eyeshadow palette from Sephora, why haven’t you asked for more hours at work yet? Or if you are planning to fly away for vacation next summer… For myself, I am planning on going on a few trips outside of Vancouver this summer, so my plan from now until July 2019 is to save up as much as possible.
Picking up a seasonal job is also ideal around this time as Black Friday and the Christmas season is coming up – many mall retailers and restaurants are always hiring for workers during this time of year.
You are able to spend more time with your friends and family
Fill those gaps in your schedule by planning a day to catch up with your friends or loved ones! My parents used to nag me about being at school until 8 in the evening on some days, or fret that I wasn’t able to go out with them on the weekends because I had to push out 750 more words for a paper that was due that week.
So far this semester I have reliably been able to schedule my weekends around meeting up with a friends, either to chat over brunch or they simply came over and watched YouTube videos. This also applies to my family; my relatives from the USA flew up here to visit this Thanksgiving long weekend, so we got to have a hearty and warm Thanksgiving dinner all together, followed by spending the next day having brunch at Burgoo and heading over to Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.
You can set some personal goals for yourself
Use this time to work on yourself, for yourself! What do you want to see change before this year ends? Or, what skills do you want to improve on during the last bit of 2018?
As I am a design student, some of my goals include working on revamping my online portfolio to show to potential employers and clients when I have to apply for co-op jobs two semesters from now; I am also working on some side projects to include in my portfolio too.
Two personal goals I have for myself are:
- To improve all online communication I utilize, from sending text messages to checking my emails. One way I work on this goal is whenever I am commuting to school or work, I check all of the notifications I have received while I was asleep and getting ready in the morning, and then I respond to them in the order I have received them from.
- Prioritizing my day. Since I have a lot going on in my life, I use my daily planner that I carry with me at all times. In addition, I find that using the “Stickies” tab on my MacBook Pro is a huge help. I use several stickies, colour code them, and categorize them – one for “School”, one for “Extracurriculars”, one for “Side Projects/Career Goals”, one for “Work To-Do”, and lastly, one for “Friends/Social Life”.
It’s amazing how little time it actually takes to begin working on yourself – and seeing changes. You would usually think that it would have to be at least a full year in order for these changes to start to occur, when really, even the smallest things in life can improve your way of living each day.
What are some lessons I have learned during this short time span?
I have more time to do the things I love
Back when I worked retail last year, I didn’t really have much spare time. I went to school on the weekdays and worked on the weekends. By the time I came home from either school or work I was way too exhausted to do anything. Now that I can fit school AND work all on one day, I have more time on weekends to do the things I love, such as writing this article!
School is no longer overwhelming
Hey, you may find yourself spending hours on end writing revisions of a paper, or meeting up with your classmates for that group project, but they are not all-consuming commitments that take up your whole life, right? At the most, you’re probably devoting two or three times less the amount of time that you would spend on these tasks, compared to a typical semester. Because you’re not too overwhelmed on school, this also means less stress and more time to take care of yourself and your well-being.
You really get to cherish the people around you
Going back to what I said in number two of “Things of do if you are a part-time student”, which is to “Spend more time with your friends and family”. One lesson I have learned is that being in the presence of friends and family brings so much value into my life.
I am someone who truly believes sayings such as “always expect the worst” and “live today like it’s your last”, because really you never know what the next day will have in store. Before my relatives from the States flew back home after the Thanksgiving long weekend, I thought we would all have dinner at home the night before. It turns out while I was in lecture the day before they left, they texted me saying they wanted to go out for dinner and that I should be present at this dinner before they hop on their flight the next morning. I was very grateful to spend more time with them before they headed back home.
I know the prospect of slowing down the speed at which you graduate can seem daunting. Since students initially went to college to obtain their diploma in four years, taking a semester off or even just taking less than a full course load may seem counter-intuitive. But once you get into university, you may realize that it isn’t really a race to the finish line to see who can get their degree the fastest. Instead, it’s that time in which you finally become an adult and can set your own pace. Adulthood will also mean that a million different responsibilities will come falling down on you all at once – some responsibilities you may have asked for, but some which came totally unexpected and uncalled for. I am a huge advocate for mental health and taking care of yourself, so if you feel like you need a well-deserved break from school to focus on the more important matters going on in your life, you should consider taking up part-time studies next semester!