Walking the tight rope, balancing work and school

Waking up at 7:30a.m. on a Monday morning typically involves an ongoing snooze button marathon dragging on until 8.

The sun is annoyingly bright as the non-stop chirping of birds pollutes any hope of squeezing in a few more minutes of sleep.

To those of you lucky enough to be kicking off the first day of the week it is nothing serious, just a rough start to a new week.

But if you’re like me and are juggling both school and work, you have reached the point where you can no longer separate the weekdays from weekends. Congratulations! You are one step closer to losing your mind.

When I initially began here at Chaffey, I was enrolled as a full-time student; looking for a part-time job to get me by. Fast forward a couple of years and I have achieved a semi-successful balancing act of school and work.

I emphasize on semi-successful because luckily I have learned to function on limited hours of sleep. Unfortunately, this success has come at the cost of my GPA and complete dedication to school.

Not trying to use my job as an excuse, but I have fallen into a hole which I cannot climb out of. It is no longer having to work for extra spending money, but it is a commitment to making enough money to pay my bills.

The sad part is that somewhere along this road the roles have reversed. Work has become my number one focus, as I have placed school on the back burner. This is not what I planned for.

My work schedule, being that I work in retail, is constantly changing. The one thing that remains the same is having to work five days a week; leaving the other two days for school.

Having to precisely schedule in time to do school work is a challenge. Many times I try to do it right after work staying up most of the night; or come home and sleep for a few hours and then wake up to finish my work.

I have become extremely miserable. My life is now stuck in a rut and I no longer see a way out.

Many people hear my complaints and disagree with my views. They tell me I should feel lucky I have a job. With the rise of unemployment and the bad job market I bitterly concede.

This is why I do not see a way out. If I plan to continue to take care of my own financial needs, I have no other choice. I have to adhere to the needs of my job if I plan on moving forward.

I look forward to being at school. Not only because of the learning experience, but it is my time away from work. I can try to relax.

As much as I dislike the position I am in, it serves as an extra motivator. I am definitely struggling to keep up this balancing act. The stress piles on and I come close to breaking down.

I try to step back and understand that this is why I am still in school. I am here to define a better future for myself. A dead end job in retail is not going to be the end of me. I am just paying my dues.

There is nothing better than a crappy job to provide the driving force needed to succeed.

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