The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mich chapter.

Navigating life is hard enough, now add being a full time student to your list of things to do. The pressure is hard, and the expectations are high. How do you fit it all into one life? And what about the burn out? Welcome to my little rant diary where we just figure it out.

Wants, Needs, or Obligations?

I grew up in a small town in Ohio (I know I am a traitor to my hometown state…. And I’d do it again. Go blue!) and my one goal was to leave the moment I could. Now, I’m stuck in the habit of needing to travel every second I can. Nasty little expensive bug. It started out with me moving to California for my first year of college, where I thrived in the sunny state. Everything was perfect and happy, and most importantly? I wasn’t in Ohio! A dream come true, until I grew homesick.

One trip home to Ohio, meeting up with my tight little group of four friends (only two remain in present day). It was so fun being home and with a different group of people who didn’t peak in high school. It made it harder and harder to get on the plane every time. This sparked my traveling desires. I began traveling more and more to California, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania – wherever I could go that was not that small town in Ohio when Covid hit and sent me to my hometown.

Now that I’m back in person on campus classes, I found that when winter hit, I was missing that sense of traveling. Want? Need? I couldn’t tell you. I suppressed my traveling desires when I got myself a boyfriend (Hard launch? Eww) and he was in Detroit. It was my little off campus get away I could run to when I was feeling claustrophobic on our big campus. It wasn’t until his job sent him packing to California that my traveling desires crept back up and took a hold of me. I could go wherever I wanted or needed. I needed to go see my boyfriend, right? Obligated to, obviously (whatever I want to tell myself to give me the push to go).

So, I began to travel once again.

Balancing School Life X Travel Life

This was tricky, how would I manage to travel AND attend my classes? Would I be able to keep up with the course work? This is how I did it:

I set up my schedule to where I had online classes on Thursdays and no classes on Fridays – giving me a long weekend. Not to mention the early ending classes on Wednesdays, lining up to be a perfect late afternoon flight time. Schedule was everything.

My rule? No traveling if I was behind on my school work.

Attending and succeeding in school are my top priorities. If I start to fall behind because I can’t sit still, then I would be forced to sit still. I made sure the time I had on campus and not in a class room was spent sitting at home with my roommate getting ahead of the game. Some nights this meant not going out, but it’s the price to pay for a free trip courtesy of your boyfriend’s big boy job that pays.

You need to keep yourself focused on school, even when the fun part of life tries to distract you. It’s tough at times, I would get bored or tired of doing homework and I would begin to put it off. Then it meant having to focus on school work instead of going to have fun with friends.

Finding the perfect balance is key, and that key is lost in a haystack at some points. (Okay Ohio, yeehaw pop off!) I’ll be real with you, I’ve always struggled with a work/life/school balance, and I still do. I just told myself a really pretty excuse, “If I was to die tomorrow, would I feel fulfilled?” NO! I DIDN’T TRAVEL THAT ONE TIME I COULD HAVE! GAME OVER! So, I went. I made it work. Sometimes, I stressed myself out for the experience. (*whispers* for the plot…)

Some ways/reminders to be able to balance life doing school work and the travel life are:

Prioritize school work before you book that ticket

Get ahead of the work you can do

Study/ finish work on the plane

Not every weekend night needs to be a night out with friends ( sometimes it’s a night in with your textbook)

Say yes to traveling

The Burn out

Don’t know when to quit? Call me guilty.

I have an annoying sense of always needing to please others, even when I take a hit. When my boyfriend moved, I immediately felt like I needed to always say yes to seeing him when he asked. This was an issue for me, because I realllllllyyyy needed to study or catch up with work. I was getting tired of fitting everything in my schedule. But instead, I said yes to helping him move and driving him to the airport and skipping my classes. Then when he asked me to come to California, even though it’s so close to finals, I said yes. Now that I’m back? I am exhausted.

Let this be a warning girlies, listen to your body.

I knew I was tired, and the 5 hour flight should’ve been used more wisely. When I was with him in California, I still made sure to do my homework but when I wasn’t doing that, I was off doing something with him. A week before that spontaneous flight to California? A flight to Florida. A week before that flight to Florida? Another flight to Florida. I was over doing it and I could feel that burn out coming. When I got home, I was so tired I couldn’t do anything.

I wanted to do school work, but the demons in me wanted to nap. I didn’t want to nap but the demons, the parasites in me, they wanted that nap.

I was struggling now, and then the allergic weather came to take me out. I was burnt out, barely wanting to leave my bed. I was stressing myself out by being in bed relaxing. I began to dream of the day to day stress I was having. I was having dreams of being a server again at Buffalo Wild Wings… I FORGOT HIS REFILL! So, my school work got sloppy and I got a little behind. Now? It’s closing into finals, and he wants to come visit and I can’t say no so…. Good luck, Charlie.

WARNING: Don’t do what I do.

The extra

I love traveling, I love being out with my friends, and being a student at the University of Michigan. If you can travel, I say do it. Even if it’s just a few hours off campus, don’t stop yourself. You’ll figure things out, but memories are important to make. My goal is to never look back and think “man, I should have gone.”

Full Time Student x Full Time Person

We wanna slide into your DMs