I’ve never really been good with balance in any aspect of life. I devote all of my time to something phenomenal and I then quickly seem to forget about other things that matter. It’s a flaw, I can admit, and something that I’m still working on. This came to be a major problem for me my first semester of college.
Have you seen the triangular diagram depicting college life? Here it is in case you need a refresher:
Nothing has ever been a more accurate depiction of college. I think I’ve managed to try each and every combination of choices and I’m still not sure which is the best. I suppose the only solution to the problem is figuring out a way to manage all three. If you’ve managed to do this, please call me and share your ways. But for now, without further ado, here are personal accounts of each combination.
Social Life and Sleep
Aka freshman year when everything was new and exciting. There were so many people to meet and so many places to go. I didn’t have the time or energy to care about stupid gen ed requirements (calculus, I still hate you), and my grades were a direct reflection of this. I spent my Sundays sleeping in and procrastinating and I never did class readings or even opened a textbook in general. I think I finished that semester with one A. Coming from the academic hall of fame at my high school (clearly I peaked here), this was a true slap in the face. I had a lot of great memories from this combination, but I knew I needed to change something.
Grades and Social Life
Knowing that I needed to make my grades more of a priority, I could only assume that I was already off to a great start with this combination. However, do you know how hard it is to get good grades when you get no sleep? (I love sleep.) I still spent weekends out with friends, and somehow my grades were slowly improving, but not to the degree that I liked. It was frustrating and I didn’t know what to do. My weeks were full of studying and trying to catch up, which then left only the weekends to be with friends. I couldn’t keep up and my brain/body rebelled. I always felt run down and sick, and the bags under my eyes were permanent. There wasn’t enough coffee or concealer in the world. I needed my sleep back. Which lead me to the last combination.
Sleep and Grades
This combination wasn’t completely chosen willingly, but rather more circumstantially. As my junior year got into full swing, all of my friends began turning 21. One by one I watched them all grow up and head off to the big girl bars. Meanwhile, my forever 20 year old self was left in the dust. I can’t blame them, I would’ve done the same thing if the roles were reversed. Naturally, this led to a lot of sleep and studying. I wasn’t out every weekend, but I realized I wasn’t missing much. A 4.0 GPA at the end of the semester felt better than any night out, but, needless to say, life was very uneventful.
So where’s the happy medium? Like I said, I’ve yet to master that, but I can only assume that’s where happiness is. Maybe I’ll be able to master that during my senior year. After all, that’s the last chance I’ll get before I have to choose between adult priorities. I can only imagine how much more difficult that will be.
