So status update on my life: I am now on my last quarter of my undergraduate career. Since it is my last quarter, you would think that I am taking a bunch of easy classes like DePaul's wine tasting class or an easy improve class. Well, I am taking the wine tasting class, but I am also taking two graduate classes to finish my degree. Since I am in a five year program, I will be starting my graduate career for journalism.
When I was first accepted into this program, I was initially thinking that once I start as a full-time graduate student, my life (academic and social) was going to completely change. After all, graduate school is a whole lot more work and I cannot be doing the things I used to when I was doing my undergraduate work. Since I am taking enough graduate courses to become a full-time graduate student, I should not even have the time to do a Netflix binge watch.
However, now in graduate school, I can honestly say that my life is not any different than it was while in my previous years of college.
The one thing that I was worried about in graduate school is that I would not have time for any of the clubs that I am involved with. I thought that once I was in graduate school, I would have to throw myself into my studies and limit how much time I do extracurricular activities. Now that I am taking these classes, I have found the time to do my homework and still stay involved in all of these activities. Sure, those classes are work, but it is not unmanageable work.
Another thing that I thought I would need to limit is my time with Netflix (and gaming) and time with my friends. Once again, I thought graduate school meant focusing more on my studies than my social life. On the contrary, I can still make the time to be with my friends and to have some down time for myself. Our professors know that we do want to experience life even though we have more intensive coursework. By managing my time, I can still squeeze in a night out with friends or an entire night of just hanging out and binge watching "Friends".
Maybe my experience in graduate school is different from someone else in a different program. I am getting my graduate degree in journalism, a field where professors want papers to be short and to the point (just how I like it). Maybe for someone doing a graduate degree in a field of science, the coursework could be far more intense and constant studying may be needed, limiting some free time for stuff. However, just because graduate school is meant to be more intensive, it does not mean that our social lives come to a screeching halt. You can still be a graduate student and still have time for fun.
