With the spring semester about a week away (as I write this, that is), I am ready to go back to school and get started on my new classes and work schedule while continuing the activities I’ve come to enjoy (and maybe some new ones).
That being said, I am going to make a major change this coming semester. I am going to start being a bit more selfish.
I spent last semester trying to juggle everything. Class, work, dating, family life. I loved it, but I also realized I am more stressed out than I have ever been, and I need to stop before it gets to be too much. Who knows? It might already be.
Spending my time stressing, even about the stress I know I will eventually have, is not working. I am not ashamed to say that this semester, there will be some changes in who I hang out with and how.
My friends are wonderful people that deserve to spend their time with me with ME and NOT my complaints and my stress. I am going to talk about what is bothering me to the people that need to know. I am tired of talking bad about people and never actually talking to the people I am having problems with.
I am going to focus on my classes, and not be so concerned with every little thing I could be doing. If my friends are hanging out, I can afford to take time to focus on my schoolwork before going to spend time with them.
When my friends are struggling, I will help them. I will be there and help in any way I can because I NEED THEM. That’s not to say that I am not going to ever let them leave my side because that’s crazy. But I am going to make sure if my friends are giving up some days, I am not. The people I spend time with a lot have become structurally ingrained in my college life. If they’re gone, things change. I’m not ready to let my friends slip away for no reason.
Last semester was the hardest semester so far in more ways than one, and I am going to make this one count. I’ve got a handle on having a heavy class load and working a real job. And nothing is going to stand in my way of upping the responsibility and working hard. I had a 3.3 GPA last semester. I plan to make it a 3.4 this time around.
I am going to relax and let life take me where it wants to, whether that be to the gym or on a road trip one day with my roommate, or to my friend’s dorm room to have a movie marathon. There will also be more trips to the library (and I’ll be there 15 hours a week already for work) and more study groups with classmates if I can find some that want to study with me.
I am ready to connect with new friends I haven’t met yet and with the people I am friends with but almost ignored last semester. My best friends will still be my best friends, but I want to do more and feel more open in the college experience, as opposed to making everyone’s problems my own.
I am ready to be selfish, because if I don’t care about myself, other people caring won’t matter nearly as much to me and won’t help me feel like I’m making progress.
Let’s do this thing.