Balance

Balancing everything on my plate this year has been a challenge. Everyone always says junior year is going to be the hardest year. I never put much thought into it, but boy were they right. Junior year is challenging, especially trying to balance everything on top of one another. I mean this is the year of SAT, ACT, visiting colleges, deciding what you want to major in, and so much more. This is a stressful year and trying to balance everything has been a struggle.

I take college classes already so I am ahead of the game in that, but adding them to my schedule was a lot harder than I intended. The first couple of months were very easy and I was always ahead of schedule. Half the time I was doing nothing and would just sit at home, so I decided to get a job to keep me busy throughout the day. Which seems like a good idea at first, that was until softball season started. More than half my days were taken up by softball now, so I ended up working during the day more than I did my college classes. I ended up pushing all of my work to the end of the week because I would be so tired and didn’t want to do it. So, instead of picking the smarter choice I pushed it off. I never was late on assignments, but I always did them the day they were due. I knew I needed a change to my schedule because I am now taking 3 college classes instead of 2 so, it will be even more challenging.

Luckily I realized how I needed a change. I started to keep a planner of everything I was doing during the week. This helped me balance out my time because I would plan in advance when I would do my college and when I would finish it. This allowed me to plan out my work times better because instead of over scheduling myself I actually realized I needed the time so I cut down my work hours and would only work like 3 days a week instead of 5. Writing down everything was extremely helpful so I could manage my time and plan everything out so I didn’t feel like I had no time. My biggest tip for better balance is to write your schedule down and plan ahead so you are able to balance everything out.