This summer while I worked my first full-time, 9 - 5:30 job (well, internship) I reminisced about how wonderful it was to be in school and have breaks between classes and time to go to the gym at 3 in the afternoon, and days when I could sleep in till 10. I thought about how easy the college life is compared to the sitting-at-a-desk-seven-hours-a-day life. I must have been delusional, or something. How did I not remember the fact that my college life is like a 24/7 working life... I never get a break. Well, that's not entirely true... I do take time to myself and time to relax, but usually not without some project or assignment hanging over my head. While working, I came home at 5:30 and could do whatever I wanted for the rest of the evening. Now I come home and squeeze in reading, interviews, assignments and job applications between meetings on campus and study groups. It's really quite insane, because I always can be doing MORE.
Now, I do love college. A lot. But when it comes down to it, this lifestyle isn't all it's cracked up to be. It has it's extremely wonderful aspects (living with four best friends, Thursday nights downtown with only one hour of class on Fridays, a dress code so minimal that I've gone to class wearing Peter's basketball shorts and the shirt I slept in, abundant opportunities to grow as a journalist, student, Christian, friend and human being) but it also wears you down. My mind is so overloaded at any given time. It's like having a constant flow of tasks from seven different sources: convergence capstone class, infographics staff class, two spanish classes, Dance Marathon, job search process and wedding planning. (On a personal note, Peter and I are engaged!) I know most students have far less on their plate, and I could too. But I can't really. It's just who I am. I suppose should probably stop complaining about it and just enjoy my last semester of self-induced insanity.
