Behind The Scenes

A lot of people that I know think college is easy. Particularly when I tell them what my schedule is like. I go to school 2 days a week and am not currently working. Sure it may look like I’m living the dream and I know I’m better off than many but school is hard. I don’t sit around and watch movies all day, I can’t. You college kids know that we have stuff to do. Papers, presentations, reading, notes, studying, and going to class to listen to an instructors lecture. Not to mention the people that work too. It’s a lot to carry. Especially when trying to balance it with other parts of life.

I struggle to find a balance between God, family, and school. And it really should go in that order but lately I’ve been doing it backwards. Since when Is school more important than my relationship with God? It’s not but I worry so much about it that it seems that way.

Balance is key. My dad told me that you have to give a little to everything and not give too much of what you have to one thing. That makes sense because if I spend too much time with my school work I’ll have little time to spend with my family. And while it seems quite simple, actually doing that is hard. For a college student there’s always something that needs to be done. Assignments aren’t usually due the day after they’re given, usually they last about a week or so. So we are never actually “done” with our homework. We don’t throw our pencils down and yell “ha! I’m done!” In excitement and relief because we really aren’t. We may be done with what we think we need to do for the day, but there’s still something else that we need to work on. And that’s the hardest part for me. Knowing in the back of mind that there’s always something else I could be doing for school but I have to make the choice of “am I gonna do it now? Or can it wait another day?”

I’m a planner. I like to plan everything out and know what’s gonna happen when. I do that with my schoolwork and for the most part, it works. But then there are those small and big things that sort of mess up my schedule. Things like going out with my family instead of staying up to work on a PowerPoint, or going to my sisters house and getting distracted by her adorable puppy who likes to keep me from doing my work. Some of those I can control, but others I can’t.

Maybe it’s a family emergency or it’s your internet going out. We can’t really control those things and that puts us behind in our list of things we gotta do. Then we may have to spend a little extra time working on that paper that’s due at midnight and a little less on the reading that’s due in a few day. As much as we try, not everything in our lives is gonna get an equal amount of attention. And that’s hard.

It’s hard for me when my little sister says I don’t spend enough time with her because I’m always doing homework or claims that her life is harder because she goes to school every day. A lot of people

in college don’t go to school all day every day. But we still have the same amount of work if not more, than any other student.

This post isn’t a pity party I’m throwing myself or others. I know I am blessed not to have to go to school every day and that I should be grateful I don’t have to wake up early every day. I get that. But I wrote this post to help anyone reading it get what else goes on in the life of a college student. But not just college students, everybody. We all have things in our lives that people don’t know about or don’t pay enough attention to notice and because of that, they only see what they think is a perfect life. Whether you’re the one who assumes someone else has it made or the one who who does a lot that goes unnoticed, think about this: One, God sees everything and two, no ones life is perfect. What you see on the outside is not always what exists on the inside.

To the assumers, I’ve done it too. I look at someone and think they have it easier or their life is better not stopping to think about what goes on behind the curtain. So the next time you think someone else has it made, take a minute to remember their life isn’t perfect either.

Now to the college students and anyone else who can relate to this post: remember that you’re not alone. There are people who have been in the same place you are now, struggling with the same things. They made it out and so can you. Keep working hard, but also don’t get into the habit of being an assumer, assuming your life is harder than everyone else. Everyone goes through things that not everyone sees and because of that, we should all be careful the judgements we make about people. Especially the ones made based of what we think we see.