When taking five or more classes, chances of completing every little thing that a professor’s syllabus calls for are slim, at best. Let’s be realistic – over the course of a week, there’s just not enough time to complete every page of required reading and studying that college level courses typically demand. Our homework can become an overwhelming mountain, and in an effort to do our best, choices must be made.

For many students, it’s not just the reality of a full course schedule that competes for their time. Holding down a job, staying involved in campus activities and still making time to have a social life all vie for a student’s daily attention. It can be exhausting juggling essays with work, and finding time for exercise and downtime. It can be difficult to use the weekends for catching up on studying
when friends are out having fun.

But this isn’t one of those editorials you find all too often in college newspapers, complaining about the chaotic life of a college kid. There’s little use in lamenting lack of sleep and accumulating schoolwork. For students, these stresses are like death and taxes – inevitable.

The lives we live may seem unmanageable at times, but these stresses are what make college, and life, worth living. Being busy means we’re making the most of our time, and try as you may, it’s completely impossible to have control over every aspect of your life.

As college students, the sooner we grasp this concept, the better off we’ll be. It sometimes feels as if 168 hours a week are not enough to get everything done we need to. What’s essential to remember is that it’s not always about how much we accomplish, but rather how we accomplish it.

Part of being a good student is finding time to keep up with course work, but sometimes it’s just as important to prioritize what’s on our schedules. It’s essential students recognize that much of what is learned during the college years takes place outside of the classroom.

More than anything, it’s important that we, as college students, don’t lose sight of the things that make our lives infinitely more fortunate than many other
people around the world.

At the end of the day, no matter how hard sleep is to come by and regardless of the hours of work still to come, we’re in an opportune place to begin successful lives.

We’re privileged to not be amongst the ruins of earthquakes and directly involved in the terrors of war. We’re lucky to be overwhelmed by an upcoming test, and privileged to be stressed about our jobs, friends and family instead of those who are without any of these things, wondering
when and if the next meal will come.

And while we love to stress out over the looming workload that awaits us in the morning, the reality is that that workload will never go away, despite how hard we labor, how well we organize. Unless we cut all ties and move to an isolated island, the demand will never cease.

Why spend our time bemoaning the busyness of youth? What’s the worst that could possibly go wrong? Will the world come to a sudden end? Not likely.

Instead we’ll live to see another day, and as long as we’re committing all of ourselves to what
we’re doing, things will work out.

During Conan O’Brien’s last show as host of The Tonight Show, he delivered a message to young people in which he ridiculed cynicism. “For the record, it’s my least favorite quality,” he told his viewers.

“But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you. Amazing
things will happen.”

College is a time to make the most of opportunities. We often have more on our plates than we can handle, and thank goodness for that.