Managing Time by Lillie

Managing Time by Lillie - September 2014 Scholarship Essay

As a college freshman I hear all of these stories about mistakes upperclassmen made their freshman year and how even now they’re still trying to repair the damage. In these stories they judged people, slept through classes, partied too much, but the ones that I hear over and over as they hold the most significance, are those of students who signed up for too many things and didn't know how to manage their time.

In high school I was the Jack of All Trades. I participated in student council, played varsity tennis, held office in anime club, actively participated in church, joined a book club, learned how to build bikes, tutored, played basketball and much more all while maintaining a 3.0+ GPA taking IB, AP, PSEO and honors courses. Some of my activities overlapped, often I had to leave one to go to another or I just wouldn't go to one of them. Few of these activities required any outside responsibility and if they did I let them consume a large portion of my time.

It’s different in college; here they want students actively engaging both in the classroom and out. I have to spend more time studying than before and every extracurricular expects me to play a significant role, representing them even outside of meetings. Here I am expected to make an impact and to embrace my new found independence, that’s kind of hard to do when my heart is still aching from missing everyone at home and managing my time is in my own hands.

I don’t want to end up like the upperclassmen before me, slowly working to repair avoidable mistakes; and yet I don’t want to not participate in all that I am offered. I am an overly active, easily distracted, procrastinator and here I am learning to pick and choose my battles so I can more effectively manage my time.