Learing How to Balance My Schedule
Before I came to college, I thought I was going to have a lot of free time in the first quarter since I only have four classes. I thought about going out every weekend like I did in high school to explore Santa Barbara, a tourist city which means plenty of places to go, and probably joining some clubs or getting a job. I thought if I was not going to do all of these things in the first quarter, I would not have time to do them the following quarters because I would have more classes. But I was wrong, even the first quarter is very busy. In the past four weeks, I was overwhelmed with schoolwork, textbooks problems for chemistry, a quiz in every other week, chapter readings for psychology, and studying for tests. Four classes seem a little but plus the sections and torturing class, they turn out to be a lot of work. Because of the heavy workload, I kind of give up on my goal. I feel lazy to go to events meetings that I should have gone in order to join some organizations.
My cousins have told me that quarter system went by so fast that all of a sudden final was here and the first quarter was done. I didn’t believe them until I experience how fast time passes by now. It seems like the school just started two weeks ago and now we are having midterms these two weeks. The midterms are barely here but we already need to pick our classes for winter quarter. Even though I kind of give up on my goal to get involved in some organizations for now, I did achieve my prior goal, the goal to adjust to the quarter system. So far, I am doing good in all my classes and keep up with the homework. I get used to learning things in classes at a fast pace and learn to use my time efficiently.
The busy schedule makes me realize I might need to give up some time on studying for other activities, depending on what I want to get out of my college experience. Studying less might not help me get straight A’s or even B’s in my classes. But the question is what I want to do with the good grades. I ask myself if I want to go to graduate schools, if not, devoting all my time to study is not worth it. I know that high GPA looks good on my resume, and shows people my brilliance. But I believe that qualities that builds up outside of school are also important and useful in my entire life. So now I need to think about what I want to get out of college experience and how to balance my schedule for academic study and extracurricular activities.
