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........................... Oct. 19 - Nov. 01, 2001
OTHER ISSUES .................... |
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Keeping Up The Balancing Act: Students Juggle More Than Just School And Work |
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Autumn has arrived and as sure as the leaves fall and the wind blows, the hectic life of a student is well under way. Classes have begun, as well as the balancing game. Juggling school, piles of homework, family obligations, and everything else that life throws ones way can be overwhelming, if not downright exasperating. As a returning adult student, school can be an entirely different challenge than a younger student faces. Finding that fine line of balance between school, work and family is an ongoing search. With the recent events of terrorism and the recession that our nation is facing, it's enough to make anyone crumble, especially as a student. What's your anxiety level?
I can tell you that my anxiety level is high, extremely high, and as every quarter begins, so does the battle for finding time in the day to accomplish all that needs to be done. If it's not an armful of books to read, it's a paper to write, a house that needs cleaning, a meal to cook, or a dog to feed. Oh, and did I forget to mention going to work everyday? It's a crazy schedule to juggle and I'm sure someone else must feel the stress that I do.
The first day of classes when syllabi are distributed my panic is at an unconscionable level. My heart beats at a ridiculously rapid rate, I sweat, I run around worried, frantic, wearing a frown, sure that I won't be able to accomplish the goals I've set.
Top grades, learning all I can from my classes, giving my best performance at work and quality time spent with my husband, animals, family and friends are just a few of the goals I face achievement of at the beginning of every quarter.
A typical day consists of dragging my tired non-morning self to school, making a mad dash to my car (often parked in the "pit" section of the parking lot) so that I can make it to work on time. Then I return home only to start my second job, school; and the homework awaits.
Homework isn't the only task waiting for me after work. The dog needs to be walked, the cat needs her medications, the mortgage needs to be paid, among other bills and finances that need attending, the garbage needs emptying, the dishwasher unloaded, laundry, groceries and the list goes on; are you tired yet? Forget about your favorite television shows; forget hanging with your friends...it's all work and no play eight days a week.
Longfellow said it best, "Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close, something attempted, something done, has earned a nights repose." The weekends hold no repose for me.
Saturday is the day of errands, the day to wash the dirty laundry, make phone calls, shop for groceries, buy birthday gifts or trips to Home Depot. Weekends are constantly being booked up with social functions such as dinner with friends or family birthday parties that I politely and repeatedly decline. There are only so many hours in the day and weekends are made for catch-up in the life of a student.
People easily forget what it's like to be a student. A friend in his thirties, returning to school here at Shoreline for the Nursing Program said to me, "It's hard to go to school when no one else is going to school." This couldn't be more true. Everyone else in your life can't comprehend the work you take on as a student; they don't remember the numerous papers, the stacks of reading and the exhausting arithmetic. They often were younger when they attended college, weren't married, working and running a household. These variables change the college experience, not to mention ones energy levels.
As an older student I don't always have the energy that a younger student has. It's the natural course of life; you get older, you have less energy. Staying up until midnight takes a toll on you the next day, it's not like when you are 20 and you bounce right back. I call this the rubber band syndrome, as a young adult, you bounce back...as an adult, it takes a bit longer.
Longer is sometimes better; waiting longer to go back to college isn't easy, but anything worth something isn't easy. Finding a balance takes time and patience. Now here we all are, the third week of the quarter is over and this is around the time I realize I'll get through it, I'll manage.
Finding that balance is the key to survival; sometimes that paper has to wait, not all the math can be understood, not all the reading is going to be read thoroughly and the house isn't always going to be clean. These are the realities of being an adult returning to college.
I've realized that college is a test of diligence, and if you can male it through college, I'm sure you can survive anything that may come your way.
One tactic in seeking focus of my goals is posting inspirational quotes on my bathroom mirror. "Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal...tenacity."-Louis Pasteur. "My education is an investment."-Phaedria Kopp. Then there's my favorite; a picture of a pencil sharpened with an inch left with the words, "Persistence". These small efforts help keep my focus and perspective.
My husband's efforts contribute to my success as well. He helps cook dinner, walk the dog, run the errands and keeps the heaping laundry piles from burying me; he helps me keep my sanity.
Without your sanity, you cannot have balance. My advice to all students is breathe, keep perspective, stay focused on your goals, and as I need to remind myself, take it one day, one paper, and one chapter at a time.
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| by Laura Bradford Kirch | |
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