Saturday, February 9, 2013

Not Enough Hours in the Day

College takes a lot of time. I think it's interesting how much of the day it takes up, considering that most people who go are adults who have to support themselves and sometimes their families.

I have three classes that I'm taking. Chemistry 121, English 101, and English 252 (medieval lit.). My chemistry class is a two hour class, but I only have it three days a week. Both English classes are one hour classes that are held Monday-Thursday. This means that on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday I am in classes from 8:00am-12:10pm. On Tuesday I only have class from 10am-12:10pm. However, I have seminary (a Monday-Friday class where I go to the church and learn about scripture stuff) in the morning and a carpool arrangement that makes it so that I can't just go home when I finish class. With this taken into account, I'm away from home from 5:50am-about 2:00pm. Still, that doesn't sound too bad, right? Wrong. It may seem like the typical high school schedule, but there's one thing I haven't yet mentioned.

Homework. In college, there are less hours that you have to actually spend in class, but this is made up for with extra homework. The typical amount of homework per class is approximated to be about two hours per class, which means six hours for me. I've been able to work out a system with my current classes so that I get all of my homework done within four hours on week days. However, I do all of my homework when I get home instead of in my free time at school. I use that time for writing my book, which is important because it's potentially my entire future. So I can typically be completely done with school stuff at 5 or 6 in the evening. Keep in mind though that I have to get up at 5am to get ready for my morning class, so to get a full nine hours of sleep I have to be asleep by 8pm. That only leaves me two or three hours for things like dinner and free time.

That schedule works fine right now, but what if I want a job or if I decide to get some more extracurricular activities to put on my college resume? Or what if I just need a night with my friends? I'd have to start managing my time differently and cutting down on things I really care about like my writing. Either that or start failing my classes, which is not an option.

I'm not complaining. This all works fine for me. I think I manage to get enough extra stuff done to impress the university I plan to go to, and I don't need a job yet. As for friends, I'm content to save them for the weekends. I just wonder about other people. The people with families to take care of. How do they handle it all?

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