You’re a second-semester sophomore/first semester junior in college. You just realized half of your college career is over. You irrationally come to the conclusion that you haven’t gone to enough parties, haven’t participated in enough extracurricular activities, and haven’t explored all the opportunities college has to offer. Before you know it, you think college will be over and you’ll be a hot mess with no job wishing you were back in college. To fix this, you try to take on two jobs, join five new clubs, take leadership positions in all those clubs, do an internship, try to go out every night, and decide to take six classes every semester from here on out instead of five because you convince yourself you won’t graduate on time if you don’t. At first, all these responsibilities don’t seem so bad. However, now you’re 4 weeks into the semester and drowning. Stress and anxiety quickly take over and even an hour of free time seems like a luxury. You’ve had five mental breakdowns in the last 24 hours and you don’t know how you’ll make it through the semester. So now what?
Take a deep breath. You need to realize that you still have two whole years left of school. That’s 24 months, 104 weeks, 730 days, 17,520 hours, and 1,051,200 minutes left to do everything you need to before you graduate college. That’s plenty of time to get an internship, build up your resume, get all your classes in, and make hundreds of drunken college memories.
When you’re drowning in work, meetings, classes, etc., think about what things actually make you happy and what is worth it. Make a list of your priorities and start with things that are non-negotiable. For example, that $40,000 investment you’ve already made for your first two years of tuition. You should probably put that on the top of your priority list and keep going to classes. From there, maybe consider cutting out one of your jobs if you can afford it or cut out that club that you kind of hate. Make time for yourself because what they don’t tell you about college is that your mental health is so important. If you can’t take the time to let your mind rest, you won’t be able to get anything done or enjoy your time here. Make sure you set aside at least an hour in your day to allow yourself to relax. Shut your mind off and forget about your responsibilities for just a little bit.
Don’t feel bad to saying no and don’t overextend yourself because you feel like you need to have your life after college figured out. If you spend too much time in college trying to plan for the future, you will miss out on everything these four years has to offer. Take a deep breath and relax. Remember you still have two years, 24 months, 104 weeks, 730 days, 17,520 hours, and 1,051,200 minutes left before you actually have to pull your life together. Enjoy it while you can.
