There comes a time in every college student’s life where they realize that they’ve spent every penny they had on food, booze, and often expensive purchases. Nothing’s in your wallet except for cobwebs and dust. You are faced with the realization that you need to trade in your care-free college lifestyle for a life in the work force.

This is what happened to me. I spent all my money on going out, buying too many clothes, and the occasional house party. By the end of the fall semester I was completely broke. It was time for me to get a job. However, the problem with finding a job is that it has become nearly impossible to get a job as a student. Not a lot of places will work with your schedule and/or they want someone who can work full-time. And don’t get me started on the ‘you need to have experience even though literally no one wants to hire you to get experience’ spiel.

After countless application submissions and interviews, I finally landed a part-time job at the end of the semester. It was great at first. I worked 30 hours a week and I still had time to study and to hang out with friends. By the start of this past semester, we had lost a lot of employees and became understaffed. My managers had asked if I could work five days a week. I knew that it was only going to be temporary and I desperately needed the money, so I said yes. One month turned into four and before I knew it, I was putting in 40 hours a week on top of taking five college classes and an online internship.

My schedule was jammed packed! Between work and school and trying to keep in touch with the people around me, I barely had enough time to eat or sleep. My Google calendar had overlapping dates. I had meetings scheduled during my class time. I had assignments due when I was in the middle of my shift. The days that I wasn’t at work, I was in class. And when I was in class, I was simultaneously taking notes and doing work for other classes. I soon found it impossible to keep a steady balance between my work life, school life, and personal life. I had to neglect a lot of parts in my life just to have enough money to buy groceries for the month, enough money for textbooks and school supplies, and enough money for me to get to and from work as well.

Let me just take a moment to say how much I do love my job. I work with great people and for a great company. I do not regret or have any contempt for working as much I do because I know that I am doing important work. But this semester has made me tired. I’ve had so many demands from so many parts of my work, academic, and personal life. I was pulled in so many directions that it was hard for those parts to not blend into the others. I was stressed to the point of tears and I was focusing on literally everything else and not myself. But I got through it.

As much as I was stressed or depressed or even isolated from the most important parts of my life, I still got through it. It wasn’t easy- at all! This experience has made me realize that we all need a balance in our lives. We cannot do it all and no one should expect us to. I know that there are many students where this type of lifestyle isn’t an option. They need to work those 40 hours as well as take 4-5 classes in order to graduate on time and have enough money to keep up with their expenses.