For most of us, work is a usual part of our day and an even more familiar aspect of being in college. After moving out, you find yourself on your own with stacks of bills to pay, rent, gas, and food costs to cover. It's no wonder you have to work all the time. But when does working all the time become too much?
1. You're constantly tired.
Regardless of what you are doing, how long you worked, or how much sleep you got the night before, you are always tired. You could have slept for 12 hours the previous night, but come eight o'clock you're ready to go to bed.
2. When you have a day off, you don't get to enjoy it.
Your days off are filled with cleaning, shopping, catching up on school work, and doing laundry. There isn't much time to relax because you get so behind on even the simplest of house chores from constantly working.
3. Constantly rejecting your friends invites to hang out
"No, sorry I can't. I have to work." This is a line that you have had to repeat too many times to count. Eventually they stop asking you to hang out and start assuming you just have to work.
4. You miss out.
You quickly notice just how impossible it is for you to make every birthday dinner, social event, or outing with your friends, no matter how fast you drive. All of your time is invested into work, and you have to miss most of the things you used to enjoy getting to do.
5. Continuously feeling overwhelmed
When things start piling up or are not organized, you find yourself feeling a little panicky. Balancing 17 credit hours, two jobs, sorority life, and trying to have a little social life is very difficult at times. When you start struggling, you don't want to ask for help. You try to solve everything yourself and maybe cry a few times along the way, but that's normal, right?
6. TV, what's TV? You don't have time for that.
While all of your friends get to stay caught up on American Horror Story, you are seasons behind them. Watching television just isn't a priority. Definitely something that you would like to do, just not anything you have time for.
7. Headaches are an everyday thing.
If you work too much, then you probably know the struggle of living with constant headaches. For me, Excedrin is bought in bulk.
8. Five hours of sleep is considered a good night's sleep.
Whenever you go to set your alarm and see you're getting around five hours, you get super excited because that's totally better than the three you got the night before. Chances are, if you are able to get 7-10 hours then you most likely slept through class or are very late for work. That doesn't mean, however, the mornings that you do actually get to sleep in.
9. You always still seem to be broke.
You could get paid and take that money straight to the bank to avoid spending it, but by the first of every month you still seem to be broke. After bills, rent, and groceries, there isn't much left there to work with, and your bank account ends up struggling more than you.
10. Finishing homework at 11:59 when it is due at 12:00 because you had to work
Most of us know the struggle and accuracy of this one. If you have ever taken an online class, then you know that most assignments are due at midnight. If you are like me, then you usually end up submitting them at the last possible second. It's not like you intentionally meant to procrastinate doing it, you just didn't have a lot of time to.
