Going through College

First 8 weeks of college

Hello, Greetings, Hola, Guten Tag, how many more ways can I say hello? Well if you are reading this you are wanting to know how it is to be an online student who is off-campus. You could also be wanting to know how the school as affected my life as an adult or maybe just how college differs from high school.

First, let's start off with some backstory, shall we? My name is Colleen. I am 18 years old. I attend Ivy tech as an online student. I live off-campus and with my boyfriend who is going to be starting a degree in business this fall as an online student. I was working a part-time job before my grades started to slip. Well now that we've got that out of the way lets get into it, shall we?

So the way my classes are is they can span 8 weeks or 16 weeks. my first class was only an 8-week class. Easy right? nope. I started working at Hardee's the week before school started and my boyfriend had just gotten a factory job. Yay income, Yay money. At first, ya know it was fine. I'd wake up, go to work, come home do school and then get my boyfriend up for work in the evening. Then I learned that I can't do that because all of my stuff is due at 11:59 pm every Sunday. Working as a first shifter that kinda screwed me because I was always in bed by 10 pm to wake up at 4 am for work. So I respectfully requested to become an evening cook. my shift was 2 pm to 10 pm. no biggie. My job wasn't extremely strenuous. I usually was awake after I got off because of yay coffee. I'd get some work done and then go to bed. This was all fine and dandy until they kept keeping me over and making my boyfriend late for work. So we made an agreement: For me to be a nighttime cook, I had to be out the door as soon as he got there for him to make it work on time and I needed Sundays off. Now, remember that statement because it comes in to play later on. My gm agreed to this statement, making it known to the other managers of this agreement. This stuck for about 2 weeks before the started keeping me way over and making him late. Now mind you I live in a very cooky neighborhood. the crackheads and tweekers around here are crazy as fuck. Speak to one in the wrong way you could get attacked. So it's dangerous to walk around at night without someone with you. None of my co-workers could walk me home or give me a ride home most nights, therefore, my boyfriend Cristan would come and get me and take me home.

I brought the issue up to my gm again saying if something doesn't change I'd have to quit. Not wanting me to quit she reminded them of the agreement. that lasted a week. then they took away my Sunday nights without even asking me or giving me a reason why. I went to the gm again and told her hey I can't be working on Sundays. She didn't give me an answer she just hung her head and walked away from me. SO I let this go thinking okay maybe I can work around it.

The big exam came around the corner 75pts. it was due a night I was working. I fell asleep with the test screen open when I worked on it after work. I begged and pleaded my professor to let me redo it but he said no bc he had previously allowed me an extension with the midterm and didn't want to allow another one. I was furious. I let work get in the way of something I'm paying about $1200 to do. I stormed into work the next day and put my 2 weeks in. It's not worth sacrificing something I pay 1200 do to, for $8.50 an hour. no, it's not worth it. That job almost caused me to fail my anatomy 101 class.

Currently, I am jobless, trying to only use the money I have on things we absolutely need. Cristan is working part-time at his job to bring home 400 a week to cover bills and save up for an apartment. He would be on fulltime but one of the company's buyers is on strike, so they had to cut people down to part-time. Right now we live with his family but are looking to move out. Lemme tell ya, its a stressful process. Everything is very expensive and you have to save up as much as possible. I can't count how many times I've sat in my room and cried out of stress. I am on fall break so I am usually at home or walking during the day. I try to make myself productive but it sucks not being able to contribute monetarily. I know the money right now is in the factories, but I don't think I could handle factory work plus school. It's a conflicting situation.

My advice would be, make sure to hammer down a schedule with work and try not to change it unless its a dire thing. Make sure you still have time to do your schoolwork and still have time to be a person. School is your #1 priority because either you or the government are paying to go to school. There is actually a formula to determine how many hours you need to set aside for schoolwork. I've heard the common number about 30hours depending on the professor's workload for the class. if it's not much work then you may be able to cut that down, if its more workload make sure you budget your time very wisely so you can get it all done.

Another paragraph of advice, please please please make sure you have a support system behind you. I have friends of mine, my boyfriend's family and my boyfriend supporting me and telling me every day to make sure I get my work done and wishing me luck on tests and such. I know college can be extremely tough I am going through it. A support system can also be a great thing if you suffer from depression, anxiety or another mental illness. It is a proven fact that we are the hardest on ourselves. If you bomb a test you might feel insanely bad about it even if it wasn't worth much. Those people can help pick you back up and get you back where you need to be.I guess a summary of this chapter would be, Make sure you can get settled into college and maybe even form a routine. Support systems can be the best thing ever and a huge help whether its to make you feel better or even help you study. Snacks and coffee can be your best friends but keep it in moderation. Your health is important too.

Goodnight my lovelies. Keep those heads up. Study, do your homework, take your medicine, go find some food. Stay healthy and safe.