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“I’m just, like, SO busy right now!”

Are you rolling your eyes right now? Good, me too.

This sentence is uttered by every single Penn State student, and the closer it gets to finals week, the more this becomes a constant conversation topic.

Sure, everyone’s busy. Between 12-23 credits can keep anyone pretty booked, but then there are clubs, internships, jobs, and of course, the all important social life. It’s no secret that college students, especially at Penn State, and ESPECIALLY in the PLA tend to stretch themselves as far as possible.

I am no exception, and I am definitely guilty of acting like my junior year of college kept me busier than Kylie Jenner at a plastic surgery convention. It’s life, and I definitely can get caught up in my own schedule.

One conversation I’ve had a couple times with my roommate, however, is that life will be easier when we are out of college, just working a 9-5 job. Less busy, more relaxation time.

Our rationale for this was that in college, you can be up at 5 am for Army PT and then out until 10 or 11 pm at club meetings, running to different places here and there throughout the day. But, at a 9-5 job, you clock in and you clock out, with an hour for lunch, and the rest of the time is yours.

Well let me tell you, on today’s episode of “Brenna was WRONG” (what’s new?), I would like to take all that back. And that was just after working an internship, not even a real, paying job.

The day starts at 7 am, out the door by 7:45 to sit in traffic for YEARS (okay actually just an hour, but still), work from 9-4ish (whenever my boss feels generous enough to let me off), then another hour in traffic back. After work, I try to go to the gym, so there’s another 30-50 minutes gone. By the time I get home its usually 6:30, so I spend an hour making a healthy dinner (notice I said healthy–if I wanted to, I would order a pizza every night but I’m trying to be an adult), and then another half hour eating it. By this time its 8 pm. I still have to shower, study for the LSAT, and God forbid I want to do something else like answer emails or do my laundry or clean up. By the time I actually get to bed its 11 pm, getting ready to start the cycle all over again tomorrow.

I will acknowledge that if I really was desperate, I could adjust this schedule slightly and save myself some time. I also understand that some of you will think that I am a big baby because I am getting 8 hours of sleep in this schedule that is “so busy.” You would be right. I make sleep a priority, and if that makes me a big baby, then I guess I’ll deal with. Because I can assure you that the Brenna who functions on too little sleep resembles a baby way more than the well-rested-Brenna.

But seriously. This day leaves no time for reading, watching TV, or even a little “how was your day chat” if I had a roommate. Don’t even get me started on how a working parent does it. I leave work every day drained–I can’t imagine having to come home to a child who needs constant care and attention.

I guess my point is that, as college students, we sometimes need to pop our little bubbles and realize that the real world doesn’t necessarily get easier. Its going to be new and exciting, but its not some kind of major break from college, where we all get to breathe a sigh of relief and relax. So maybe, before complaining about how we are all “SO busy” we can just smile and enjoy the limited responsibilities and the cushion of adulthood we have at Penn State.