College is where you are supposed to find out who you really are (which, to be real, is why declaring a major later in your schooling is not the end of the world unless you are going for engineering, but that is a discussion for another day). This is the time when you make friends that you are more likely to keep into adulthood. This is where you try to find out what you like, and maybe this is where you figure out your next move.

With hundreds of clubs and activities, not to mention work and classes, it is very easy to stay busy during these four years. That being said, it is also incredibly easy to get in too deep and stress out to the point of completely shutting down.

I have plenty of experience with this. Freshman year was where it all started. I did well in my classes, sure, and I was able to add contributing to sports talk shows at WMEB (the campus radio station) and club swimming to my activities list. Everything was falling into place. That changed rather quickly.

My sophomore year, I tried to do too much. I was involved in trying to start a new fraternity, I was working two jobs, going on air for all things sports-related, and was trying to swim two to three times a week to boot. When pairing that with my classes, including learning Japanese, it was way too much for me. I stayed up too late every single night.

I would forget to eat frequently. It got to the point where I was tempted to try causing harm to myself, leading to going to counseling. To say that the end of the school year, especially the spring semester, could not have come quick enough would be an understatement.

One of the things that I had learned, especially as a junior living off campus and being reliant on the bus and the schedule that comes with it, was that sometimes, saying no to things was the key. When swim time was pushed back to 8:30, I realized that I would have to cut it from my schedule.

I dialed back how much I did at the radio station in order to attend classes. I became involved in a different fraternity, where I did not have too many responsibilities. I was even able to add a job at the student newspaper to it all. It was the year I wanted and needed to get back on track.

I am not one to advocate staying cooped up in a dorm room studying all the time doing nothing but studying. Doing that leads to missing out on all the opportunities you are never going to get back after four years. However, I will say that being able to know your limits and learning to say no can be just as vital to having the best years possible.

Saying no to doing fun things, to meeting new people, is one of the hardest decisions to make. But trying to fit everything you want to do in the limited amount of time you have every day is one of the worst things you can do.