Opinion
College burdens too much to shoulder
November 4, 2011
Being a college student is hard. Take all of the classes, homework, and studying, and then add working on top of all of that; it gets rough. I know a couple of people that have more than one job, and I have no idea how they do it.
I feel like I’m barely surviving with one. I’m not even working full-time, and I still find it hard to do all of my homework. I work closing shifts at least three times a week, mostly on weekends, and then I feel way too tired to do anything else.
I’m sure that there are many of you out there that feel the same way that I do. How do we do it? I know we all need jobs to pay for rent, cars, food, etc., but sometimes it feels like it’s too much. It’s hard to work weekdays and then get up for 8 a.m. classes. I understand that I have to go to class, get good grades and graduate, but there are some days that I would just love to stay in bed.
Sometimes, I feel like I can’t even have a social life, as many of you may feel as well. It’s frustrating right? Get up, go to class, go to work, go to bed. Then I get to do it all again for the next couple of days. When I finally get a day off, I’m catching up on homework or studying. When I’m not doing school work, I’m trying to catch up on sleep. My, oh my, what a week it is. It’s not that I don’t appreciate working. I enjoy that I’m able to pay for my own car and not have to rely on my parents as much. Although, it’s still hard to juggle it all.
Why can’t it be easy? Why can’t we have the perfect work schedules and the perfect class schedules? Oh, that’s right, cause it’s life. Nothing can ever be easy. Sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to work. That would be ideal. However, everything is getting more and more expensive. Gas prices are going up, and so are food costs. In reality, not working would never happen. With the economy the way it is today, finding a job is becoming more difficult. It is exhausting pounding the pavement, filling out application after application, and waiting anxiously for a phone call; I just want to scream.
I shouldn’t even complain about working, but it’s hard not to. It’s hard growing up. We get more and more responsibilities. And, with responsibilities, comes bills and taxes. We’re in college; we should be focusing on that. We shouldn’t have to worry about how we are going to pay for everything. There are some of us that are lucky enough that have parents who help us. There are also many of us that have to pay for rent, tuition, cars, and groceries all by ourselves. It’s sad, but most of us need jobs in order to survive. Working and going to school may not be fun, but unfortunately, it’s necessary.
Samantha Harkness is a journalism major at UW-River Falls. She loves reading, writing and watching movies.