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Student Life

You Can't Always Juggle Everything

Don't stretch yourself too thin.

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ride the wave

We all want to be "the best," I know. I get it. Especially in our college years, we all want to get as much experience as we can to prep for the fields were going into.

We all want the best internships, leadership positions, etc. But are we really internalizing all of it if we are being pulled in a million different directions? Probably not.

I'm not saying to drop everything you're in and lose your competitive edge, but sometimes we take on more than we can chew. This is a cliché many of us need to be reminded of. When you graduate are those 100 internships you did and 10 leadership positions really going to mean anything to you if you can barely remember the skills you learned and applied because you were apart of so many things at once? Again, probably not.

What I'm saying is that it's better to be committed and active in 1-2 roles than trying to juggle 10+ extracurriculars and leadership positions and 7,000 internships. Numbers don't always mean something or indicate your skills and value.

If you have leadership roles in too many things, are you really even being a leader? If you're not giving it your all, it's not worth it.

If you feel overwhelmed, or like you're not getting anything out of a certain role, internship, etc, maybe it's time to cut back and focus on moving up and progressing in the ones you are really engaged in. If you really invest yourself and dedicate your energy to a few important roles or clubs, it will be way more rewarding down the road than saying you have 100 titles under your belt, but didn't participate much in any of them because you were doing the absolute minimum to just get by in each. That's not helping anyone.

By dedicating yourself to a few things, you can get more work done for those organizations you may be a part of, give them more of your time, and be better recognized for it instead of just being that person who pitched in an idea a few times a year and just did the bare minimum to remain part of the group. That won't yield you any good recommendations anyway.

When you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, or maybe like you're not contributing anything because you're stretching yourself too thin, always keep in mind that your future employers will care more about a few active roles where you did meaningful work, than 100 titles listed.

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