Lexikay Stokes, Campus Carrier Opinions Editor
For many of us, be it your freshman or senior year, second semester has come at us like a ton of bricks. Whether or not you think January lasted a whole year, or only seemingly three days, the semester is in full swing and it isn’t letting up.
It’s easy to get bogged down by the weight of your work load and forget to do things like socialize and maybe eat on a normal schedule. Late nights in the library and afternoons filled with notebook pages and Word documents seem to be the norm. In the midst of all this, when you think you have the least time to do anything, it’s more important to be intentional.
Yes, obviously have a responsible work schedule which fits the requirements of your classes, but I’m talking about more than that. I’m talking about being intentional with people. Be intentional with things that you really enjoy doing.
You’re lying if you say you’re o-chem problem set brings you the same amount of joy as a cup of coffee with a friend. You’re also lying if you say you would rather spend a meal huddled over your desk than across from someone in conversation. It’s so easy to put our friendships off to the side for the sake of our GPA, but that tendency often causes more problems later down the road than you might expect.
I’ve realized this year the importance of allocating my time to be the most efficient, but also the most considerate about what I’m choosing to do in my few spare hours.
Sure, I would love to spend my time between classes and work watching Netflix and often, I do. But what I’ve learned is that those few hours between other responsibilities can be used to invest in people.
College isn’t supposed to be four years of stress and school work (even if it feels that way sometimes.) It’s supposed to be a time of growth not only in your academics, but also your relationships. If we all were supposed to just avoid our social lives for the sake of our school work, we all would have stayed home and opted for online schooling.
The thing is, even when you feel like you have no spare time on your hands, it’s important to find even the smallest moments to be human. I’m having one of those weeks now. It seems like everything that could happen this week is happening, and I most definitely began this week thinking of kicking my roommates out and locking myself in my room. However, if I had done that, I would probably be worse off.
We need people. We need those small moments of friendship and companionship. Even in our most hectic of weeks, it is so important to sit back and be intentional with your time.
Your friends care about you, they want to see you. Time with them can help you more than you know. So, next time you’re debating just grabbing a to-go box and eating in your dorm to do some work or staying in on a Saturday night to get ahead for the week coming up, think about the other ways that time could be spent.