College students are naturally busy. Between classes, sports, clubs, homework, a social life, and sleep, life can get crazy. I recently decided to calculate how many hours a week I am doing things school-related to see how much of my life is consumed by college. Here is a breakdown:
Class: 452 hours/week
Work: 10 hours/week
Extracurricular activities: 12 hours/week
This adds up to about 474 hours a week. That's a lot, especially since there are only 168 hours in a week and 56 of those are supposed to be devoted to sleep, but most often are not. When people say "there aren't enough hours in the day," they really mean it. But something I have noticed since being at school is that college students like to be busy. I have not met one person that is not involved in 15 different clubs and organizations on top of class and homework. We glorify being busy, as if it's an accomplishment to stretch yourself so thin that you barely have time to breathe, let alone sleep.
I will admit that I thrive on being busy. It helps me stay focused and I enjoy everything that I do. Freshman year I had a lot of people tell me that I needed to drop something because I was too busy and it was stressing me out too much. While this was true, I couldn't imagine giving up anything I was involved in; I enjoyed it all too much. This led to arguments and frustrating feelings. I know that these people were only looking out for my well being, and there were times when I wished I had listened to them, but I just couldn't do it. I wanted to stay busy. Because being busy kept me from thinking about about how much I missed being at home and how much I missed by family and my boyfriend and all my friends.
I will admit that I think I used my busyness as a way to cope with the transition of college life. Looking back, however, I still don't think I would have quit anything. I just needed to have better time management. As a junior, I have learned how to manage my time better so that I don't feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off. I love being busy and I love everything that I am involved in at school. Xavier has so many opportunities to offer and I want to make the most out of my four years here. Even though some days are easier than others, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn all that I am and to be able to participate in things that make me a better person.
