Life is a balance scale. All of us want to spend time with our friends and family, while also focusing on our health and pursuing our passions. At the same time, we are preoccupied with school, work, and the future. One of the greatest struggles in life is finding time to balance it all. Sometimes we feel as though we have a good system down, yet other times we feel overwhelmed, as though it is impossible to try to have it all together. We will not always be able to perfectly balance our lives because there is no such thing as perfect. What might work for one person may not work for another. Life is about finding your own happy medium.

As college students, finding a happy medium between our work, aka school, lives and our social lives is the ultimate struggle. We are young and have no idea what the future holds. Some of us have career paths mapped out, yet others of us are still trying to determine what we want to major in. Whatever the case, the future is some indefinite, unknown, frightening place. To ensure the best possible future, we all want to work hard in school to secure successful jobs, make close friendships to last us forever, all the while enjoying ourselves before the “real world” is no longer something we speak of, but rather a reality. But how can we balance it all?

Our work lives and social lives are equally important to our success in the future and our happiness in the present. We cannot put all of our energy into projects, exams, essays and undergraduate research, that we forget to enjoy what are supposed to be the best years of our lives. On the flip side, we cannot forget about school completely and spend all of our time hanging out with friends, going out to new places, and staying up until 3 a.m. that we barely manage to get a degree.

So, what does this mean? Should I focus more on school, or on my social life? I do not believe that this is a one-size-fits-all type of answer. Do what makes you the happiest. I suggest that you work hard in school, but don’t stress yourself out over getting an A on every assignment or mastering every project. School is most definitely important; we wouldn’t be at college if we didn’t want to be successful in life. However, while you are still young and have no responsibilities but yourself, travel, go out with your friends, experience new places and people, make memories that you will carry with you and one day look back on, laughing. No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they got plenty of sleep. A well-rounded person is not one who has mastered every assignment or project thrown at them, but one who has seen the world and knows how to enjoy life. Don’t get so wrapped up in the future that you forget to live in the present. And never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.