Finding Balance In Life

Finding balance within your life is one of the most important things you can do in your early twenties. Trying to keep school, work, friendships and relationships all equally balanced is a struggle. I remember my freshman year of college I spent way too much time and energy into things that didn't matter and my grades suffered as a consequence.

The easiest way to balance everything out is to plan. My prefered way of planning is Google Calendar and making a new list every week. Seeing everything you need to get done laid out takes some of the stress away and allows you to allocate time for other things you enjoy.

In my calendar I have different colors for each type of activity. Sorority events are in lavender, assignments are in pink, my work schedule is in green and my class schedule is in blue. Having different colors for each type of event helps me quickly see what I have to do without having to think about what aspect of my life this event is in. Planning is different for everyone and it's up to you how you do it. I found in high school I would always buy physical daily planners but I would never write in them or I would forget it at home. My online calendar allows me to always have it in my pocket and I find it less stressful than a physical calendar.

Making to do lists is my number one college girl tip. I make a list at the beginning of every week of assignments I have for each class and when they are due. College softwares can be tricky to navigate and with so many assignments each week, it's easy to miss one. Once the assignment is done, I highlight it in yellow so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. It gives me a boost of serotonin every time I cross something off my list, especially when all my work is done before Wednesday.

I know a lot of people who work multiple jobs during the school year to pay for groceries, nights out and student loans. It can be really tough to even find a job that can work around your class schedule. I looked for a job for months last spring and nobody would hire me because my class schedule was so weird. When I finally did get a serving job I was working until almost two in the morning some nights. I would come back to my apartment exhausted and then end up oversleeping my alarm and missing class.

Finding an on campus job is a great way to make some extra cash and work around your schedule. It might not be the most glamorous job in the world but when you are looking to make money as a broke college kid, anything will do. 

When I came to college as an only child, it was almost like I was learning how to "girl" correctly if that makes any sense. I didn't have any older sisters to teach me how to do my hair right or how to do my makeup. I was constantly learning new things from my roommates like how to correctly curl my hair and take care of my skin. It can feel scary going into college as an only child because we have been alone most of our lives and now we are thrown into living with 2-8 girls in close quarters. You may not instantly click with your roomates and that's totally okay, you just have to put yourself out there to find those deep and meaningful friendships. My sophomore year I wanted to expand my friend group and went through sorority recruitment. I was scared shitless. I didn't know what to wear or what to say or if I was even going to like any of the sororities. Im happy to say I did and it was one of the best decisions I have made in my college career. I saw myself become more outgoing and more of a leader, and I met women I probably would have never had the opportunity to talk to if I had not taken that leap and gone through recruitment.

School should always be your number one priority in college while also trying to maintain friendships. If you have an assignment due at midnight, do not go out girl. I swear FOMO was the death of me freshman year and I was always putting off doing assignments to go out with my friends. My best advice is to try and get your work done before thursday. This allows you to have a carefree weekend and go out with friends. I've implemented this my junior year and I absolutely love it. I would get so much anxiety about my assignments while out with my friends that it would ruin the night.

Relationships are probably the trickiest thing I will talk about on this blog. I'm no expert considering the fact that I have the highest standards known to man kind and everything gives me the ick. Although I will say I have witnessed a lot of failed relationships. It's even harder to maintain a life balance if you and your partner are long distance. Jealousy comes into play very quickly if they go out to the bar with their friends and you don't know if they are flirting with someone or being hit on by someone else. Just like with school work, planning out when you can both do something together is a good way to maintain a happy relationship. Even if you are long distance, plan a movie night over Facetime and dedicate that time just to them. If you both go to the same school, understand that you do not have to spend every waking minute together. You are both going to have different schedules and you just need to allocate time for them even if it's once a week.

I hope any of this was helpful! Please reach out with any ideas you have for me to talk about!

- Morgan