Reflections of a busy student

By Bethany Peterson/editor-in-chief

There is a problem with my schedule this semester.

There’s only one day I can sleep till 9 a.m. And the one day I can is really pushing it.

I’m a full-time student. French, math, communications and English each require lots of study time. Two part-time jobs, one here at The Collegian and another as a wrangler at a Fort Worth stable for a total of 24-30 hours a week, add to my load.

Plus, I have dishes and laundry to do, a family to talk to and keep track of, a boyfriend to hang out with, church meetings to attend, friends to see, email and Facebook to check and my own horse to ride.

Oh, and a couple hours of sleep a night is nice, too.

None of this is bad, mind you, besides the dishes part that is. I enjoy doing it. I’m just so busy I left my shadow behind at the start of the semester and haven’t seen it since.

There’s so much to do, I completely forgot about a class once. Luckily, catching up wasn’t hard. However, stepping into alternate realities when I hurriedly switch roles from student to reporter to sister can be jarring.

And it’s not like I can afford to just stop working. My money goes for gas to get me to school, car maintenance (a free car, thank you, grandparent, but I still need brakes and windshield wipers), food for days I’m stuck on campus and don’t want Pop-Tarts for lunch and other things can really drain the bank account.

I know I’m not alone by any stretch of the imagination. Students across the country are working just as hard.

Students stumbling into class Monday can no longer automatically be labeled as party people. The grogginess is just as likely the result of long hours on the job making up for limited work time during the week.

And still, students take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans every year. I haven’t joined that crowd yet, but I’ll have to someday, I’m sure.

There is no immediate solution to the overworked student problem. Few benefactors have the resources to completely pay for a student’s college, and I don’t know any of them.

The only thing we can do is support each other as we strive to get through these packed hours with good GPAs.

Then we can become millionaires and establish a free college.