By Lauren Holcomb | Reporter
This semester, I decided to lessen my class load and only take 12 hours. With harder classes and more activities on my plate outside of schoolwork, I thought this decision would make my life easier. However, it has done the opposite.
Without being in the swing of going to class early and consistently, my sleeping schedule has changed drastically. Not having a set time to wake up in the morning leaves me with varying amounts of energy each day. I am either dragging myself through the day with my eyes half shut, or I am bouncing off the walls at 1 a.m.
When it comes to workload, my brain has now been trained to believe I don’t have much to do because I am in fewer classes. Last semester, I had long and time-consuming assignments every day for every class. This semester, I have found myself putting off the little work I do have rather than getting it done right away. Everything then piles up, and I crash and burn.
I won’t lie, having more free time during the day has been nice. I have more time to spend with friends, keep my life organized and run errands. However, I now feel like I have way too much free time. I am finding myself wasting long amounts of time doing absolutely nothing productive; I feel lazy.
It’s also hard watching all of my friends be much busier than me. Constantly comparing myself to the people around me tends to make me feel like they are smarter or achieving more than I am. While I know this is not true, it’s hard to relieve yourself from this toxic mindset once it begins — especially when the people I mentally pin myself against are the people I look up to and spend most of my time with. It’s so hard to deepen and grow in relationships when there’s a part of you that feels like you are not worthy of the relationship.
I know that’s a little deep, but the more I reflect on my time this semester, the easier it is to pick out underlying roots and problems with where I am. Don’t get me wrong, having fewer classes is a breath of fresh air and a much-needed relief from the heavy load I took on last semester. It would be unfair of me to not warn that a golden schedule is not as shiny as it seems.
