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Student Life

The Reality of the Balance Struggle

School is hard, how to make it all work?

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The Reality of the Balance Struggle
CommStorm

It is almost guaranteed that anyone who has ever been a student knows about this infamous triangle of choices.

As legit as this seems I believe it is too simplistic to describe the decision dilemma us students go through everyday. Sure, if you get enough sleep it always feels like you either missed out on some gathering or you said 'who cares' about homework. Then if you choose social life grades may slip, and with all this in mind you are supposed to choose which two matter most and must leave one out. If this is already super accurate then what else could be a closer description, may I present to you the decagon of truth.


Our social life should not be limited to simply one general category. We are usually in different social scenarios with our friends than we are with the family. While in college you take the time to hang out with your friends, but then might want to send a catch up text to your siblings or Skype your parents. At the same time, you most likely have friends in two different ares, those at school and the ones you need to keep up with from home while they are on their own college adventures. All of this takes up your time, and coupled with the last social aspect of this decagon (love life) it makes matters even busier. Of course, these are all parts of your life that you are happy about, which only makes it harder to balance everything else.

A few of the points on this shape are mandatory tasks that are not always exciting (maybe not ever exciting for some). If you couldn't already guess those would be the work, homework, and class section. Not always our first choice, but they have to happen at least if you want to pass, graduate, or make money.

Then there are the other types of necessities like food and sleep, as wonderful as those two items are they both take lots of time out of the day. Between all three meals and the 'recommended' eight hours, basically half the day is used to fill these needs.

Lastly, there are the extra fun points left on our reality of balance. Anyone who has applied to a college or important job understands the importance of extra curriculars/clubs/leadership roles. Then there are activities like sports, reading, writing, singing, instrument playing, and the like. Sadly, if you want to enjoy one of these activities it seems like you will need to let the importance of something from the list above drop a bit.

If choosing two out of three is hard, then trying to pick a few out of all the options in the decagon has to feel impossible. The key to the whole equation is balance, which is way easier said then done. As the middle of the picture depicts, after trying to do it all stress sinks in and instead you may run away from your stresses with Netflix. In reality you cannot do them all to full extent, you can either pick and choose which matters more to act upon or perform all of them, just with minimal effort.

As they say, the struggle is real. However, there is a bright side and that would be the amount of choice we have. What we choose helps make us overtime, and as we learn choices have the ability to change. So,don't take them too seriously and have fun, because there will always be time to figure it out.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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