Taking five classes and having ten work hours per week sounds manageable… until it’s your life.
Once you have come close to mastering the art of balancing the two, you’re already a step closer to finding your path to succeeding in life. The job experience while in college will look awesome on your resume, and if you can keep those grades up too you are going to look fantastic at your future job interviews. But just so you know you’re not alone, let’s talk about some of the struggles that all those who are trying to find this balance are going through.
You want to please everyone, but find this close to impossible to do. You feel like your teachers and your boss are expecting 110 percent out of you. As much as we wish they would, neither our teachers nor our bosses are going to accommodate our needs, but they will be reasonable. This treatment is actually a great preview of how we are going to be treated in the “real world.” The only thing that we can really do is try our hardest. Trying to ace our classes and please our bosses at the same time is not the best or easiest of tasks. One thing I must say, though, is that hard work does not go unappreciated.
You feel like you’ll never be able to join the other clubs/organizations you want to. You think that between your work and class schedule, you will not have enough time to join those clubs you told yourself would be a part of. Join another club that interests you that doesn’t conflict, or try to see if your boss will change your hours on the days that there are club meetings. It is unlikely that a boss won’t be willing to cooperate with your schedule if you are trying to join something that will benefit your college experience.
You feel like your social life is vanishing. When you’re not in class, you’re working. And when you’re not in class or working, you’re doing homework. And when you’re not in class or working or doing your homework, you’re sound asleep. You feel like you have no time to hang out with your friends anymore, but then you realize that even doing small things with them is still hanging out. And I guarantee you will not have to work every weekend. Also, just because you don’t get to see your friends as often as you’d like, it doesn’t mean they won’t still be there for you when you need them.
Having a part time job while at the same time being enrolled as a full time college student taking 4 or more classes is not the easiest. However, this will help the student understand how crazy life after college is going to be. Instead of obsessing over how stressful this will be at the time, think of how beneficial it will be to you in the long run.
“If there is not struggle, there is no progress” – Frederick Douglass
