Maddie
Between classes, work, and extracurriculars, balancing activities in college can become quite the handful. As a student employee and spirit squad member, my days can get a little crazy. I have found that an easy way for me to handle stress is to make a detailed schedule and to-do lists of what I am doing for the day. Follow along through a busy day in my life!
7:00 am Wake Up
Today I woke up about an hour and a half before I needed to leave the house. This specific morning I did my hair and makeup, got dressed, and cleaned up my room. I find that if I pick my room in smaller pieces, it doesn't get too overwhelming. Every day I try to make my bed, even if it doesn't get done until nighttime.
8:15 am Leave the House
On my way to work I had extra time so I stopped at Starbucks. I like to budget time to find parking on the main campus because I know it can be pretty difficult. Because I work in College in the Woods, I found that parking near Mountainview is actually the closest walk with the least intense parking situation. Before my shift, I have to walk down the hill, change into my work shirt, and open the library.
9:00 am Student Manager Shift
I am a student manager for the University Tutorial Services at the CIW Library, which I really enjoy! I had the opening shift this day so I picked up any garbage, moved around some chairs, turned the lights on, and opened the doors. Thursday mornings tend to be pretty relaxed, today included. Around noon, the tutors tend to be holding more sessions and many students start coming in. I am very lucky that my job and my bosses are relaxed so I use this opportunity to do homework and get tasks on my computer done. I help students when they have tutoring or printer questions and take some laps to make sure the library is tidy, but overall it is up to me how I spend my time.
12:00 pm Home, Home
I am from the Binghamton area so I am able to go home, home whenever I chose. I left a few incredibly important things (blowdryer, hangers, and mom-made enchiladas) at home that I needed to pick up so I ran home quickly. A surprise to me, my mom was also in the process of bringing the dogs home from a morning excursion so I got to see them. I have 3 Australian labradoodles, all of which I think are the cutest dogs ever. After saying hi to everyone and getting what I needed, I went back to my college house where I live with a bunch of my friends.
1:00 pm Home
When I got to my house, I immediately plugged in my computer for my lectures that I have later in the day. I am awful at remembering to charge my iPad or computer the night before so it usually ends up as a last minute situation. I put the enchiladas in the oven and cleaned the kitchen while I waited for them to cook. I did a little work on a paper due this week then packed up to go to my classes for the day.
A nighttime picture of the Health Sciences Building on 48 Corliss. This building houses most of the upper level Decker nursing courses. As a nursing student, I spend a lot of time here!
2:15 pm Class at HSB
I have quite the case of time anxiety so I always leave way earlier than necessary! My first class begins at 2:50 so by the time I get to the HSB, I usually have to wait in my car for a little bit. My first class of the day was Nurs 321 where we are learning about the abdominal assessment. Immediately after this class, all of us move from one classroom to the one next door for Pathophysiology I. We just had our first exam so we are moving on to the respiratory system. I usually have a hard time paying attention for almost 4 hours but today the content was very engaging.
6:45 pm Home
After my classes, I went back home. I unpacked my car that has somehow accumulated all sorts of things that don't belong. I ate dinner, got ready for practice, then relaxed before it was time to leave. Somehow, this period of time every week goes so fast. We were trying on uniforms for practice tonight so I had to pack a few special items.
8:15 pm Leave for Practice
I am on the Binghamton Dance Team which performs at games, campus events, and competitions. I live with 4 of my teammates so we carpool to practice. Our seniors run a mini stretch and strength session before our official practice starts at 9.
9:00 pm BUDT Practice
Tonight was a little different than usual. We got our uniforms tonight which takes much longer than one might think. We have a dress, a sparkly top, a long sleeve top, and a skirt. We also got brand new sneakers (!) and our poms. Personally, my favorite part of getting our uniforms is getting our poms because it makes it feel so official when we are practicing with them. After our uniform handout, we ran our performance dance for this weekend a few times. We practiced our Fight Song, Hey Song, and "ditties." Fight song and Hey! are two of the dances we do with all of the spirit squads (Cheer, Kickline, and Pepband). Ditties are short, repetitive dances we do on sidelines when there is a little bit of downtime. I really enjoy the spirit aspect of dance team because it is fun to add personality to the performance!
11:15 pm Home
When we got home, my friends and I spent a while in the living room decompressing and discussing our days. This is one of my favorite parts of post-practice. During practice we are all very focused on what is going on but after, we are able to discuss little things that happened. I spent some time getting ready for bed and was on my phone until about 12:30 when I went to sleep.
This is a typical Thursday in my life but obviously not every day is this packed with activites. I spend a lot of time studying and doing homework on other days of the week so that I can be so busy on days like this!
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