Student Blog: Balancing Life Choices and Challenges

In every student's academic life, they will need to balance their coursework with extracurricular activities. It is important to find balance in school and extracurriculars so you can reduce your stress and also enjoy yourself at school and home.

As a first-time college student taking new classes and going to a new school, finding a balance in my life has been difficult at times. At times, I have to know when to prioritize studying for an exam or instead going out and hanging out with my friends. You must be able to prioritize what is more important at the moment to succeed at the task at hand. For example, I found a balance between studying and hanging out with friends when I decided to stay home and study instead of going with my friends to the beach. Although it was hard to decide to stay home and study, I knew I would appreciate my decision to study instead of going out because it was important to me to be prepared for my upcoming test.

However, you should not always dedicate your whole day to studying; you should also take frequent breaks and hang out with friends, not just dedicate your whole day to studying. Personally, on the weekends, like a Saturday, I will go to my local library and study for a few hours, and then after that, I will take time to focus on things that I enjoy doing. It is important to find something that you enjoy. I found my love for music, and reading it helps me relax and have a new mindset when I do something new.

As a first-time college student having classes at different times of the day has been a change for me because in high school I would always have my classes back to back, just like I previously mentioned finding a balance between studying and hanging out with my friends. I also had to find a balance with my class schedule. I would have to be more accountable this semester for going to class and doing my homework. This was a huge change for me this semester, and I'm glad I only decided to take three classes, as it was a good way to ease myself into college life. This has shown me that you should embrace change and not be intimidated by that much of college anymore.

This semester, my course workload for math and English has been good, and I fairly enjoy the class and the teachers who teach it. However, with chemistry this semester, I have had to dedicate many long hours to be prepared for my class since I have lectures, problem-solving, and labs. There is a lot of information I need to gather to understand the class material.

To study chemistry, I have been using the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique has been incredibly helpful for me. As someone who gets easily distracted, this technique has allowed me to maintain focus and learn much more effectively. In my academic life, I have been slowly but surely trying to find balance as I adjust to college life and the challenges and workload that come with it.