Finding the Time

One of the greatest assets after graduation is the connections you make in your workplace from your internship.  An internship is the number one thing I tell incoming freshmen to focus on while they are in school.  Start early (right after your freshman year, even!) and do them often! Of course - during the school year, it can be a little trickier to find the perfect balance between classes, your internship, a part-time job, campus organizations, and down-time. But, it's not impossible to do it all. I was there.  I was the girl who was working a 10-hour internship and a 15-hour part-time job.  I was on a leadership position in two Greek organizations.  I was involved on the campus activities board.  I was taking a full-time course load.  You can do it all...It just takes strong will, a good sense of organization, and the ability to prioritize.  Plus, being able to successfully multi-task wouldn't hurt either.

My best friend during my spring 2013 semester was my planner and my phone.  I synced my phone to my iCal and had all my classes and meetings on there. I used my planner to make lists of everything I needed to accomplish on that day.  I was always on my phone so that was where my schedule was most up to date and thats what I started referencing a lot more as the semester went on.  It was a tough semester - I would leave for my 10 AM class and not come back to my house until 5 PM, only to stay long enough to eat and then be back on my way to meetings until 9.  I was definitely my most prepared as far as classes went because I didn't have time to fall behind.  To have a semester that hectic, you teach yourself how to be disciplined and not check Facebook every ten minutes of studying.

In the end, it was totally worth it.  Pushing yourself to that level and realizing that you are succeeding is the best feeling in the world.  It really is a way to see how much you have grown as an individual and how much more responsible you are.  It also makes you appreciate the time you have to yourself a lot more.

One tip to note - the perfect balance is changes semester to semester. Sometimes it can even change within the semester. It's just important to stay adaptable to the situation and learn from your mistakes.