by Chloe Bubion
It's a Thursday night, and I am staring at my open laptop. Beyond the image of my blank screen is the sight of my roommates taking shots in the background. I slowly begin to type a five-page paper, but can only seem to type my name over and over. C- H-L-O-E. C-H-L-O-E. I know that if I go to the party with my friends I will stay out late and not get enough sleep to write this paper tomorrow.
What to do?
This seems to the weekly struggle of the typical college student, but we must come to realize and accept that we just can’t do it all.
My life is a triangle offering three choices, in which I can only choose two. At the top of my life triangle is good grades, followed by enough sleep in the right corner, and a social life in the left.
Every freshman comes into college with the idea that we can have it all: the grades, the social life, and still have time to get the right amount of sleep, but as a sophomore myself I have come to realize this is far from true.
Sure my freshman year I thought like everyone else. I am only taking 5 classes for four hours, five days a week. I will have plenty of time to hang out with friends, get a job, join a club, or whatever seems to strike my interest.
Now with over 30 units under my belt, I realize that I shouldn’t have been so naïve.
These three choices make up the college trinity, and I have come to understand that finding the ultimate balance is harder to achieve than many believe.
The truth is yes, you don’t have that much homework in college, but you have exams and papers that count for more than half of your overall grade. Working in the library and staying up to ungodly hours of the night that eventually turn to morning are common. This lack of sleep leads to procrastination leaving you to finish your homework all weekend, throwing your social life out the door.
Sure, you’re thinking, “Why doesn’t she just organize and manage her time more wisely”. The thing is I do, and still find myself not having enough hours in the day or even days in the week to get everything done.
My life is a triangle made up of three choices, in which only two are truly plausible. I believe that as college students we must work hard to find this balance in order to achieve all three aspects of our life successfully, but shouldn’t get down on ourselves when we realize we just can’t do it all.
There is a lot of pressure crammed into the four years of college. It is a time where we are faced with many decisions that often lead to mistakes, but it is all ultimately a learning process for each individual.
If someone comes up with a magical formula for the perfect way to balance your time in college, then I may have a chance at perfecting the college trinity.
For now, my life stays a triangle.
