College Life - Trying to Balance Your Studies

Moving to college. It is awesome. It wasn't long ago that I was a freshman, stepping on campus for the first time. I moved into my dorm a week early so I could get my college experience started with a bang. I partied as hard as every other freshmen I knew. I go to a Big Ten School, and its a pretty wild campus. I was definitely your typical freshman, just moved out to school and loved life. The new found freedom was something I had never experienced, and I was loving (and continue to love) the new life I was living. In college you can find an excuse to party any night of the week. Trust me, I know, I am still making up those excuses today. For instance, I'm heading out tomorrow night because my buddy is celebrating dropping a class. It's part of what college is about, partying. They say you only get one shot at this, but it's true. This is the only time in our lives we can do what we are doing, and I plan on having as much fun with it as I can.

The other thing I know is that I still need to figure out how to get through this place with a degree, because I can't party forever and I'm going to need to figure out a way to actually make some money one day. That is what is hard about this whole college experience. It is too easy to just blow off class, trust me I skip a few. But it comes down to getting your business taken care, and partying like its going out of style when you do. Having a planner helps. You just gotta sit down and look at that each Sunday for instance and plan out your week. If you got a paper due Wednesday, you can't go out Tuesday but you know you can celebrate once that paper is turned in. Know when you got to get something done, and get it done.

Now I know it sounds good and makes sense, but if you are anything like me it isn't quite that easy. I would sit there and tell myself I have a paper I have to get done, but when my buddy from down the hall would come in with some plan to go out, it is too easy to blow off the paper and go out. The main thing I learned was to find a place to study. Some people like the library, I don't. I go to the nearest dorm, they have a nice like little lounge or whatever I like. It is kind of quiet, but a little bit of traffic, I like it. I never went to it at as freshman, even though I lived in the dorm next door. I figured studying in the dorms would be good. I mean I did decent, enough to get by, but I never really could sit down and actually get my stuff done. Now instead of trying to study a little bit here in there where I live, I take a night off and head over to my study area and get all my stuff done at the beginning of the week, that way I can take the rest of the week off and do whatever I want. I have even more fun now, and I get way better grades because I'm actually getting something done when I need to.

It is all about finding out where you CAN study, and planning your time and figuring out when you NEED to study. It is easy.