Course Load: Don't Take Too Many Classes in One Semester

Listen up if your a college student. Beware, not of anything else, besides yourself. Do not underestimate your ability to screw yourself over. You're living on your own now. You get to make your own decisions based on your time schedual, your wants and needs. You don't have to take orders from anyone else anymore about how to live your life. If you want to order take-out, then order take-out. If you want throw out your garbage, then throw out your garbage when you feel like throwing out your garbage. If you want to take only 3 classes, take 3, if you want to take 8, then take 8.

However, think about the consequences! Don't forget that you have to live with the decisions you've made, day-in and day-out. If you order take-out you are going to have to take money out of your pocket to pay for it, money you can't spend later on. If you don't take out the garbage, then it will overfill and you will have nowhere to throw out your junk. If you take only 3 classes on a 3 credit system, you might not be considered a full-time student and won't get the benefits as such, like financial aid. If you take 8 classes, then you made the same mistake I did and may have ended up ruining your social and/or academic career.

When parents try to teach their kids about basic things like doing their chores, they try and make sure that you don't simply become comfortable with doing them, but learn the consequences as to what happens when you don't. When your mom gets angry because you didn't take out the trash, it isn't only because you don't have room to throw out your trash. She is partly angry at herself (whether she realizes it or not) for not having taught you the consequence of not doing your chore. Advice has been given to us left and right about how we are supposed to live our lives. In the end the choices are always yours to make, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't still listen to this advice.

Let me tell you a bit more about that major mistake I made. I made the observation that I am an above average student at my school. I believed that I had the ability to do whatever I wanted to, completely disregarding any advice given by my parents, my school or any other type of authority. "Don't take too many classes." "Don't overwork yourself. Don't push yourself too hard" "The best that you can do is just the best that you can do, not any more than that. So don't try to!" Yea, I'm taking 3 upper level mathematics courses. That is besides the other classes that I can barely even count how many others i'm taking on 1 hand. Most colleges don't even let someone take 3 upper level math classes in 1 semester, and that is on a 3-credit system, while this school has a 4-credit base system, meaning i'm taking the equivalent of 4 mathematics classes (in credits) to another school.

When I was finished taking one of my 2 math tests and 2 math quizes in a 3 day period, I cut my hand and blead myself just to make sure I was still alive and this wasn't all just a dream. Can you imagine when the last time I saw my friends were? Or how many classes I cut or how many hours of sleep I cut out just to get some extra study time? The point is that I made a choice and it was wrong. You don't want to do the same thing to yourself. You have to force yourself to try and forsee what the consequences are for your actions, or else you will suffer them.