Finding Your Balance

Life is crazy.

Anyone who tells you differently is either in serious denial or lives some sort of fairytale life where everyone hangs out with little talking animals and sings Disney songs. Personally, I’d love to sing Disney songs all day, especially Under The Sea. But one of the realities of life is that it’s messy.

As college students, we have an even messier life. Not only do we have our college lives filled with school, work, and friends, but we also have our home lives with family and more friends. All areas of our lives need attention and focus. Trying to manage all these areas can leave you feeling a bit…unbalanced.

In my life, there are definitely times when I haven’t balanced my life well. This past month of winter break was spent trying to balance my time between my mom’s house, my dad’s house, hanging out with my little brother, visiting my Papa, seeing extended family, seeing my friends at home, spending time with my boyfriend, spending time with his family, seeing my church family, and then the stress of starting a new semester with new classes and buying books. I get stressed out just reading that list. I was starting to feel like I was trying to do so much and trying to do everything so perfectly, that I ended up doing ok at everything. Grades were …ok. Relationships with friends and family were… ok. After a conversation with one of my friends, I realized that my problem was that I was unbalanced. I was trying to stay afloat on a ship that wasn’t steady, trying to keep from going….wait for it…..Under The Sea (lol). Anyways, I decided that to start off 2017, I was going to make a resolution: find my balance.

First, I needed some organization. Anyone that knows me knows that this has never been a strong skill of mine. Nonetheless, I started off by writing a list. It was simple as writing down all the people and things that are important to me. It may seem cliche to write out a list, but this was a really great way for me to step back and think about where and with whom I wanted to spend my time. College has a funny way of making everything seem like it’s the most important thing in the entire world. It is so easy to get caught up in papers and test. While those things are important, there are other things to tend to in life besides lab reports… but that’s a whole other blog post.

Second, I made myself a schedule. This included setting aside certain days to call certain loved ones, picking out time specifically for studying and homework, and also daily “me time” which is something I had never really felt I had time for. In the few short weeks I have had this schedule, it has changed my life. I won’t lie and tell you I am not stressed, but I honestly feel like I am more in control of my life. I have time to be alone and to take care of myself. I have better communication with my family and with my friends. I feel like I am on top of my school work. It’s amazing how taking some time to organize my time made me go from having no time to doing more and feeling like I have more than enough time to do it all.

Life is crazy. While these few weeks have been awesome, I’m still figuring this whole balance thing out. I know I will make mistakes, I will forget to do things or call someone. But the conscious choice to seek balance is one I intend to make everyday. Balance is something to work towards, and something I encourage you to sit down and think about for a few minutes. What does balance mean to you? Could you do a better job at being balanced? Answering these questions is a great place to start.

Oh, and singing a Disney song every once in awhile isn’t such a bad idea either.

-Sarah A.