In a nutshell, college can be described as a chaotic, rewarding, learning experience. Consider yourself lucky if you were the freshman who had all of it together coming in, because it rarely happens. If anything, the hardest lessons are the most important, because everyone should learn how to make it on their own. Without the independence and responsibilities, what would college be like?

Well, it would not be worth it.

As a college sophomore taking five classes and 16 credits, I find myself looking forward to the weekend as soon as Wednesday morning rolls around. It’s hard not to, with all that has been going on so early in the spring semester.

Let's be real: college can be really fun, but it can also be exhausting and seemingly impossible at times. How are we supposed to wake up on time, attend multiple classes, and complete coursework in between scheduled priorities (a.k.a. ‘Free time’) -- while also doing something called 'having fun'? How does any of that sound fun, and how can we ensure that we have time to breathe despite all the chaos?

It's a two-way street, people.

At times, I have missed the structure of a high school schedule. Seven consecutive hours of forced work, and you’re done for the day (excluding a few hours of homework and studying). Now, that's laughable to me. Whenever I find myself complaining about college life, I sit back and remember how much I truly hated the mundanity of a typical school week.

College is AWESOME in the sense that we CAN make our own schedules. There is nobody here to tell us what we can and cannot do -- that’s right, you can eat a granola bar during class without being called out for it.

If there’s anything I’ve learned during my time at UMass, it’s that life is truly all about, you guessed it: balance.

Coming into college, I expected that it would be a wild ride, but the twists and turns can be a bit excessive at times. Between academics, extracurriculars, and personal lives, it's hard not to think about how easy life would be if it all slowed down. However, that's what it's all about: figuring out how to handle all of the curveballs regularly being thrown at you.

There is nothing I love more than having dinner with my friends after class to talk about our days, no matter how horrible they could have been. Dinner usually turns into a study or movie date, because us college kids take all the downtime that we can get. At the end of the day, it’s about what you put into this surreal experience. Not everyone gets to have your life, so never take any of this for granted -- have fun with it.