The coolest part (or at least according to me) of a circus is when the tightrope walker comes out and walks across a really long piece of dental floss. Their balance is impeccable. One wrong move and their body is hurtled a couple hundred feet to the ground (no pressure). Gravity is no joke.
Metaphorically speaking, we are all tightrope walkers attempting to navigate across the rope of school while balancing everything in between. Take me for example. I’m the Chapter Orientation Advisor for my sorority, I write this amazing blog for all of you every week, I’m the Assistant Editor for one of Cornell’s campus magazines, the Feature Editor for another, a volunteer for the Prisoner Express, and I’m bringing my old sex blog back for our campus mag. Not to mention my fabulous social life. Whew. That’s a lot on top of that little minor thing called academics. Building a resume by getting involved in extracurricular activities, especially taking on leadership roles, is awesome but balancing everything can be a bit challenging.
In reference to my first blog entry, never bite off more than you can chew. Personally, I know I can take on all of this, though it does get difficult to remember to eat every now and then. The key to piling a lot on your plate is knowing when to ask for help. I’d love to say I’m Alexis Rodriguez by day and Superwoman by night, but clearly that is not the case (I couldn’t find a cape my size). It’s perfectly okay to suck up your pride every once in a while and say “Hey, I can’t do this or I’ll implode. Can you help?” I mean after all, Obama does have Michelle.
Another thing to keep in mind: never get involved in something that doesn’t interest you at all and you’re just doing it because it might look good one day. Added to all your other responsibilities, it’s just going to bring you down emotionally and mentally.
Learn the best way for you to study so that you don’t waste extra time when you don’t need to. Worst-case scenario, you can always turn to Facebook to predict your success of handling everything.
Lastly, as important as it is to choose the best and right amount of extracurricular activities, it’s also just as important to choose the right classes for you. If you’re duped into thinking you NEED to take a certain class that ends up being 10 times the work you need in your life right now, that my friend would be a tragedy.
Breathe every once in a while and remember, it’s all just a balancing act. Stay in control.
