Making the Tough Decisions

School is underway for most, no matter the level of education, such as high school, undergraduate college, community college, graduate programs, etc. Education is incredibly important, and doing well within school becomes a main goal, if not the most important thing to work towards for those who are studying. This can cause incredible amounts of stress and worry.

It depends on a personal basis, obviously, and it always will, but a common theme among life, especially lives of students, is the loss of caring for personal health and the over-importance of grades. Yes, it is important to do well in school and this by no means is underrating that in any way, but sometimes it is not as important as it seems—mostly when personal health deteriorates because of it.

Learning how to balance this school and personal schedule is hard, but can be achieved, eventually, with lots of practice. It is important too because personal health in the end will ultimately affect grades. The better you are doing health-wise, the more you can put into your studies. That is why learning how to make tough decisions that affect both personal health and homework is a must.

I am a full-time student taking the maximum amount of credits allowed, working three jobs, while also pursuing extracurriculars and trying to function as a normal human being. It is not easy, and I will be the first to admit that I have not been doing great at it. Three weeks into my winter semester and I have already let my personal health slip to the point that I am having stress-induced panic attacks. This is because I am putting all my focus on school. I pull all-nighters finishing reading and work for all six of my classes (18 credits) every night during the week and then go to parties and work on the weekends.

This has left me running on completely empty and getting maybe two hours or three max of sleep for almost two weeks. That is no way to actually live in a healthy environment, for myself or those around me, either. I decided I needed to start making a better balance of my schedule and discover the tough decisions of my health over my homework. I need to make a priority of getting enough sleep so that I can focus in class the next day instead of sleeping. I need to put aside my electronics and some other personal activities so that I have enough time for work and for homework...that being said though, breaks are still needed. This means that I can still watch a movie or a short Netflix show to let my mind relax in between class work, but going to a party or hanging with friends for a whole day and blowing off my responsibilities altogether is where my direction has to change focus.

It is a tough call to make when I know I have tons of homework and I want to get it all finished for the next day, but then I lose sleep enough to where I can no longer think straight for the text in class. Also, prioritizing what homework I have and having a set schedule of when to move on or switch topics so that I do my best at getting everything done is another key element.

Finding the balance between school, health, work, and a social life may never fully happen to where I am happy, but it will help me learn along the way where my priorities lie and how to manage them so that I do not go insane, because I am trying to have high grades or let my grades falter because I enjoy my relaxing time too much.