I just got home after my 12-hour shift at a restaurant on a Friday and as I write this article there is a huge frat party going on no more than 30 feet away behind two sets of doors. When you’re a kid, your parents tell you all about priorities, and how important it is to have yours lined up the way you want them and in a responsible way. After one year of college, that could not be a more accurate.

I have seen it all, kids who work 45 hours a week and take a full, difficult course load and also hold leadership positions at their fraternity/sorority and I know people that barely get off the couch to go to class and spend their days smoking and looking for new Netflix sub-series to entertain themselves for a day or two. I think one of the hardest things about adjusting to college is that you really have the option to fall to either side of the spectrum. It’s incredibly interesting trying to decide what side you are going to fall on. There is definitely a balance easily tipped by various pressures, whether that be financial, social, medical, or mental.

I have been working two jobs for a little over two months now, and I have had one job since October. The job that I have been at for the longest is rather embarrassing, and frankly, is probably more of a detriment to my resume than an asset. I started working there because a) I was running out of spending money faster than I was making it and b) because I thought that I needed an outlet from the Greek system here at UW because it can get pretty unnerving if you never have the opportunity to take a break. While I was closing after my 12-hour shift, cleaning tables, counting the till, mopping the floor with my coworkers I realized how incredible my opportunity was at that moment. All three of the men closing the store with me are "houseless" (they make the distinction that as long as people are around them that they love and care about, they are never without a home.) When, as a college student, working internships or sitting in class or in the dorms/Greek system, do you ever have the opportunity to encounter people that are on such a different priority scale than your own and be outnumbered?

Their priorities (I know because I asked) are saving up money to get a room somewhere so they have a bed, to hold a steady job, to help their friends get jobs, and then potentially try to go to school. I’m sure there are exceptions to this mentality of houseless people but I am lucky enough to be able to encounter this and call these incredible souls my friends. I had a realization tonight that although I made the conscious decision to work and write this article instead of attend this party and spend my summer in a drunken stupor, that each person chooses their priorities based on their situation. I am incredibly lucky that I have the job that I do. I work around 20 hours a week during the school year, take a full course load, am a member of my sorority, and I get to write articles for the Odyssey.

College students have the unique opportunity to have less responsibilities than a post-graduate. We are able to choose how much or how little of just about everything in our lives we want, whether it be class, or partying, or working, or exercising, or reading, or whatever else comes to mind. At least for the most part, our human needs (i.e. food and a place to sleep) are taken care of and sometimes I compare my quality of life to that of the people around me and I start asking myself if I’m working too much or too little or if I am spending enough time on my homework, or if I’m missing out on parties, social events, and football games that I should be going to. But tonight, I went to work and realized to each their own. Every person get the opportunity to define what their priorities are going to be and how much time and energy we are going to put into each aspect of our lives, we all have the ability to define our own “just right.”