I’ve heard dozens of stories from teachers, family, and my parents’ friends, among others, about working your way through college-- about getting some summer job in a factory or cannery and saving up all of your checks to pay your own way. Unfortunately this is unheard of today, as no college tuition is small enough in 2017 to be paid for by a minimum wage or even entry-level job. However, millions of American youth work their way through college by getting financial aid and working whatever job they can to pay for their living expenses.

Working and going to college at the same time is extremely difficult, even if it’s only a part time job. I’ve worked since my first semester in college and I was always jealous of my friends who could spend their extra time during the day finishing homework and hanging out with friends, doing extra curricular activities and being involved on campus. Though I am relatively proud of my ability to maintain my own living expenses while also maintaining straight A’s in college, it’s continuously been extremely stressful and tiring. I’ve learned many things about patience, self-discipline, and myself by working a job and going to school and this article is meant to pass on the knowledge I’ve gained from being a working class college student.

1. Time management is hard, but crucial

Every college student has heard the phrase time management. No matter what your major, whether you have a job, or how involved you are on or off campus, at some point or another you’ve been given the time management speech. See, the thing about time management is that it’s easy in theory, but in practice you plan to do a lot of things that don’t end up getting done the way you had hoped they would. For example, last Friday night I had planned to get home from work, completely clean my room, go to the gym, and study for the LSAT I have coming up, all before my boyfriend got home at around 12:30 am. Usually I plan on doing a lot on Friday nights in the way of being productive and getting work done because he’s never home on Friday nights and I know I probably won’t get anything done on Saturday.

You know what I actually did before he got home?

I scrolled on Facebook for almost two hours, tossed my clothes on the floor, ate some Nutella, and watched a new show on Hulu. Mhm. Yeah. Totally productive.

As I was saying, time management is hard because with the plans you make to balance everything out also has to come dedication to stick to your plan and the drive to get everything done. The best advice I can give about having good time management is to hold yourself accountable—don’t reward yourself for not following through with your plans—but also be willing to cut yourself some slack and allow yourself time for breaks. It’s okay to have a Hulu and Nutella night every once in a while.

2. Don’t let the responsibility of having a job overwhelm you

As I mentioned earlier in this article, there are a lot of times when I look at my fellow students who don’t have to have a job and can just focus on their college experience and I think about what it would be like if I could do the same. If I wouldn’t have to spend all of my spare time during the day at work; if I could just stay on campus all day and finish my homework then go hang out with people.

Having a job during college means you don’t have much time for anything other than class, work, and schoolwork. You don’t really get to hangout on campus much unless you have an on-campus job, and socializing only really happens in class unless you also live on campus. It’s stressful, it can suck sometimes, and it can also make you resent having responsibility. Though that mindset is understandable, it’s not beneficial to you or your overall experience in college. If you have a job while you’re going to school, there’s most likely an important reason behind it. You wouldn’t just choose to have to run from class to some part-time retail/food service job if you didn’t have to. Sure, there are those few people who get a job during school simply because they want a little extra cash, but those people are likely working very minimal hours and probably have a job on-campus. But it is different when there’s duty behind it.

Believe me when I tell you that it’s absolutely vital not to let all the things you “have” to do overwhelm you on a daily basis and cut the possibility of your social life short. If you do, you’re only hurting yourself and killing any chances you might have had of enjoying your college experience.

3. Spend your hard-arned money wisely

Chances are, if you have a job where you’re working twenty-five to thirty hours per week while going to school full-time as well, you’re doing it because you have bills to pay and a budget you need to fit. If this is the case, spending your money wisely and creating a rough monthly plan is the best decision you’ll ever make. I know there are days or nights when you get lazy and fast food really sounds a lot better than standing down in the kitchen at 11 pm making whatever you have in the fridge that isn’t really that appealing, but DON’T DO IT. If it only happens every once in a while, fine. I’m sure you can spare the money. But if you find yourself constantly skipping the grocery store and heading over to your local burger joint, it’s time to cut yourself off.

Having a rough budget and being able to determine where your money is going to go each month based on your average earnings is the number one thing you need to worry about while living on your own, especially when you’re in college and you don’t have very much life experience to work with. Create limits for yourself in order to assure that you have that rent money left over at the end of the month. That’ll take more stress off than anything else.

4. Don’t put work over school

I 100% understand. Picking up those extra hours seemed like a good decision at the time-- I mean you could always use the extra money-- but now it’s one in the morning and you’re exhausted and there’s no way that you’re going to be able to finish that paper that’s due tomorrow.

Well, that’s fine. You can just wake up early and crank it out before you have to leave for class right? Wrong. Your alarm goes off only a few hours later, calling you to get off your ass and go write your paper, and you hit the snooze button twice before falling back to sleep for a couple hours. Now you’re screwed and you have no good reason to explain to your professor why your paper isn’t finished and you still look like a disaster even though you didn’t stay up all night working on it like you should have.

Unless you’re in an emergency situation where you’re not going to have enough money to sustain yourself with food, gas, and bills, don’t overwork yourself at your part time and push your school work to the side. The whole point of going to college is so that you won’t have to be working that part time in the future and you can get a stable career that you enjoy. Pushing off the work that’s leading you to your future so that you can do the shitty job that gets you very minimal cash is probably the biggest mistake you can make as a young adult. Don’t let the money fool you: it does get better than this and you have a world of potential ahead of you.

5. Don’t isolate yourself because you feel like your peers can’t relate

Throughout this article I’ve talked a lot about not being able to really connect with the other students around you and your social life suffering due to all the other commitments you have. This is because I live that. I work an average of twenty-two to twenty-five hours per week and I’m taking the maximum number of units allowed by my university, hitting eighteen almost every semester. My time outside of these responsibilities is limited, and I have a boyfriend. Whom I live with. If I’m not running around trying to get everything done, you can guarantee I’m spending my time with him. This limits my social life to a large extent.

I’m now entering my senior year of college with no close friends. This isn’t to say that I haven’t met some great people and it isn’t to say I’ve never tried to make friends. However, it is to say that I know how hard it can be to allocate time for things other than what you have to get done. Now, the title of this tip suggests that you may feel like other students around you can’t relate to your situation because the only thing they have to worry about is school and what they’re going to do over summer break. That isn’t you and you don’t have that luxury. However, isolation can also come from the fact that you feel you don’t have enough time or energy to commit to the type of friendship that people may expect from you. You’re schedule is ever-changing and over-flowing 24/7 and you don’t really have free time during the day. What kind of person would want that in a friendship?

Don’t let this thought scare you. There are tons of people out there who can relate to your situation, and who knows-- there are probably tons more out there who have it even more strenuous than you do. Don’t let the fear of being rejected keep you from interacting with others. When your day off comes around and you’re laying around bored and lonely, you’ll regret it.