Going into the spring of my junior/senior year there’s a lot on my plate. Balancing work, classes, doing a BA thesis, and life can sometimes be overwhelming. Oh and trying to take care of myself. I’d rather write the thesis than make dinner. Between all the classes and stress its critical to find a balance that not only works for you but allows you to relax as well, to keep yourself from going crazy.

For some reason, in spring semester everything always seems so to be so much more overwhelming. It’s always so much harder to get back into the swing of things after break. There is no such thing as syllabus week come spring, in my experience. Most professors almost always immediately start teaching. This is especially true in my three-hour classes, which only meet once a week. So with less meeting days they have to take off immediately. Only three weeks in and I’ve already had a number of assignments due, selected my thesis topic, and I have likely read thousands of words in articles.

I dropped a class this semester, which isn’t a huge deal in the long run, because I didn’t like how I was spreading myself so thin. I knew if I kept the class I dropped I wouldn’t be giving all my classes my best self. I knew I would be trying to accomplish too much in an already stressful semester.

Seeing as I am applying to study abroad (again, yay!) there are certain classes I absolutely need to take at UAlbany that I can’t take abroad. One of which is my senior capstone for my history degree. That means, I am essentially writing a Bachelors thesis, which is going to demand a lot of my time and energy. This was also part of my reasoning behind dropping a class. This is a big deal, a much bigger deal than I originally thought it was. It will be an extensive project, complete with a thesis thought of by yours truly (oh god).

Balancing all these elements while trying to work and keep up with taking care of yourself can be a struggle. Its about structuring your week and knowing when you can do work. Like on Tuesdays I’m done with classes by 11 in the morning so I will be spending the rest of that day getting work done and making appointments to talk to my advisors or getting help from professors.

A few weeks into classes and I'm still trying to find my footing. A lot of my classes are pretty heavy with readings and writing and I'm still trying to find the right way to structure and balance my week so I'm not drowning in readings come the weekend. I think I'm on the right way to finding a balance between classes, work, and finding time to do things I enjoy and keep me sane through the cold winter.