Time management. It's something we all grapple with and all could use a little more work on perfecting. (It this is not a true statement for you, please go away before I kill you - it's been a long week).
In general in life, people have social lives, professional lives, families, bills, etc. to contend with. For undergraduate students at a school as high-caliber as Hopkins, well, we're on another playing field entirely.
A typical student at Hopkins (at least in my experience) has an average of five classes and one or two major extracurricular activities with at least one that they are somewhat involved in. Most students also have a part-time job because, well, it costs quite a bit of money to attend our wonderful university. We won't even get into the hard-core students who double major.
With all of that in mind, throw in a national war on terrorism, finals and weather that is even confusing to the squirrels. Plus, the holidays always add a few more items to the good ol' "to do" list. You can see where I'm going with this.
This week alone (a week constituting Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), I had a sum total of 40 typed pages due, a foreign language test, regular homework and reading, four meetings, a reception for my department, this two-page spread to fill and "holiday hours" at the flower shop (my choice for a part-time job). It's been a fun week, let me tell you.
My cats miss me. They look at me with these sad, little kitten eyes every time I'm home and if I go to leave, forget it. It's heartbreaking. One of them spent the morning, okay, middle of the night, crying at my feet while I argued with my computer. You see, my computer didn't feel like working, but I had one of those pesky papers due today. Good times.
And let's not even get into the little problem of clean clothes. Yeah, see I'm sorta starting to run out of those. Thank goodness my mom had a Victoria's Secret gift certificate she didn't need, otherwise I'd really be in trouble right now. Of course, that still is only going to get me so far. Anyone have some free time I could borrow? I'm not going to be selfish with it and sleep - all I want to do is catch up with my life. It seems to have run off and is dragging me along.
So what is the point of all this? I'm not 100 percent sure. I know I initially had a point, but I'm working on way too little sleep and one too many cups of coffee to remember for sure.
I guess one of the most important things I can impart upon you, my readers, is to remember to have fun. Schoolwork is important. I know that as well as everyone else does and I'm not even premed. However, I also know that college is supposedly the "best times of our lives." How great are our memories going to be if all we have our long nights in the library and resentment for the activities we once enjoyed?
Last night, instead of studying for my test, I went with my sorority to play dodgeball in an intramural championship. Granted, it was single elimination and we lost in the first round, but the team we lost to ended up winning the whole thing (congrats to the boys of Sig Ep). A few of the other girls and I hung around and conveniently managed to fit our way onto the rosters of another team that was short a couple of players. I paid for it later with my second consecutive all-nighter, but it was fun and how can you go wrong with dodgeball? It goes all the way back to elementary school phys. ed. It's one of those things that are just fundamental to growing up in America.
As what ended up being an extremely long, extremely stressful semester quickly comes to an end, I leave you all with this. Enjoy your winter break. Don't stress too much about the finals ahead of you. They'll be over in a couple of weeks and then you can enjoy the holiday season. Have a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year. Enjoy the weather and come back with a tan. Think of something totally ridiculous and immature, but do it anyway. Whatever you do, have fun and enjoy yourself. After all, we're only young once.
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