There are an infinite number of ways to live out your college life. Your years on the campus of your choosing play a huge part in defining who you are as a person and who you ultimately will become, and it starts before you even step foot on campus. Everything from your major to the activities you participate in to who you choose to hang out with defines a large part of who you are for the better part of four years.
I always chose to be involved as much as I could possibly handle when I was in high school. I graduated with a 4.12 GPA and took 12 AP and/or college classes, I was involved in over a dozen organizations both in and out of school and I was president of three of them, I was in every theatre production and sang in ever choir at least once (there was a point where I sang in three choirs in only one semester), I took voice and piano lessons and participated in a ton of arts stuff outside of school, I played a sport for a year, I was on the student council for three years… as you can imagine, I quite literally did it all.
As a result of this, I didn’t understand what it was like to have free time. I barely even knew what to do with myself when I had a couple of hours free or when I had one day on the weekend where I could get more than six hours of sleep. And honestly, this way of going through school kind of doomed me for the rest of my academic life. I chose a rigorous major that requires a ton of credit hours, ensemble participation, and outside-of-class commitments, and although I love being a music major more than anything (which you already know if you’ve read my writing before, because I love to yap about it!), it is incredibly busy. I don’t mind choosing to spend my college years like this, and it really does impact me in a lot of positive ways, but it’s weird to see students in other majors who don’t even take half the amount of credit hours I take and don’t have to be involved in what feels like a hundred extracurriculars, because they have so much time to just exist as a college student, which I do wish I also had the luxury of experiencing. So let’s explore some of the pros and cons of staying busy as a college student.
pros
meeting people
One of the best things about being super involved in college is the amount of people that you’re able to meet, especially in such different circles. Taking a lot of classes is great for connecting with different professors, especially if those classes are in different disciplines, and it’s great for making friends with other students that are either in your major or interested in some of the same things academically that you are.
Being involved in a lot of clubs and organizations is beneficial for meeting people as well, specifically outside of the things you might be academically interested in. If you play in the marching band but also are a member of the botany club, you will likely meet people in vastly different majors that still share at least one common hobby with you. It’s such a great way to make friends in general while also getting connected with different types of groups on campus, which could end up helping you later on!
Structure
My Type A self loves a good schedule. from a class standpoint, it’s really easy to schedule and structure your days, and building a routine that you can stick to for several days out of the week can help you feel more productive and ultimately get more done.
When I’m on campus for a longer amount of time, I also find that I’m way more likely to do my homework and get ahead on other tasks instead of procrastinating and waiting until I’m done with all of my classes. If I have classes at 9 am, 10:30 am, noon, and 2 pm, the time between those classes allows for me to do some shorter assignments or smaller tasks, or break up a larger homework assignment, without it feeling too daunting. As much as I can, I try to stay in the school mindset while I’m on campus, and having a structure with my classes gives me the ability to stay busy and be productive during the day between classes.
Resume Builders
The more campus involvement you have, the more opportunities you will be presented with, which leads to more things you will eventually be able to put on your resume. College is the place to get experience in your chosen fields before entering any kind of more permanent workforce, so having a lot of involvement personally gives me a feeling of being on top of my experience that could help me later on. While having a lot on my plate can seem like a lot, almost all of it has a purpose to me and can contribute to a vision of my future that I’m creating also through these experiences.
cons
poor social life
Being on campus all day and being involved in other activities and doing homework all evening leaves almost no time for socializing or meeting up with friends. When it comes to trying to plan something my other music major friends, you can basically forget it; it’s incredibly rare for our schedules to line up for more than a couple hours at a time.
The number of times I have tried to make plans with someone else, from my friends to my boyfriend to my mom, and had to constantly turn down dates and times because of a class or rehearsal or club meeting or a big assignment due is genuinely pretty absurd. I almost never go out because I simply don’t have time, and I do feel like I’ve missed out on a pretty big part of my college experience because of that.
working is difficult
With only a few hours free every day and so many consecutive classes and sporadic rehearsal schedules, working a job has been almost impossible. The best compromise I have found is working as a student ambassador (or better known as one of the campus tour guides) because the time commitment per week is relatively low and it’s doable to fit in a few quick tours every week between classes.
Aside from working during the semesters and around campus, working over the summer has proven to be difficult as well. I’m going on a trip (through the university, so it’s a school activity) with my choir over the summer that requires close to two weeks blocked off in the summer, so getting a temporary job or internship over the summer is difficult if a position is ten weeks long and I’m going to be unable to work for two of them.
fear of never having enough time
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this article, sometimes it does hurt when I see people with different majors enjoying almost excessive amounts of free time. I definitely get jealous that I never have the time to go to a Pilates class in the morning or make themselves a good meal for lunch or hang out with their friends every night.
Sometimes I truly fear that I’m running out of time. I have very little time for hobbies that I really enjoy but take a lot of time, like baking or crocheting. I am constantly looking forward to the end of things: “I can’t wait until I don’t have to take Music Theory anymore,” or “I just need to get through rehearsals this week to get the concert next week over with,” or “I can’t wait until my last semester because it won’t be as busy.” I constantly tell myself that once I’m less busy, I’ll have more energy/be able to do more things for myself/make more friends/generally feel a little bit better. Sometimes I absolutely have to remind myself that it’s okay not to compare myself and my progress to others, and that making the most of the time I do have is important while appreciating all of the opportunities that college has allowed me to have.
