Balancing Life in the Midst of a Pandemic by Nadeen

Balancing Life in the Midst of a Pandemic by Nadeen - September 2020 Scholarship Essay

It is no secret that this year is a difficult time period for those in school. With the pandemic going on, we all have to adjust to the new protocols. For some, it means a full online learning experience. I am one of them. When it comes to my classes, I am balancing four AP classes, one honors class, AVID, and two elective classes all online through zoom, schoology, and google classroom. It is a struggle to balance my workload whilst working (I am currently in a climate change fellowship). In addition, this year more than ever relies more on self-studying and organization skills. Thus, my number one priority for this school year is to properly balance my life with online school and work.
To begin with, I am currently in my junior year of high school. The common saying for many is that junior year is the most difficult and stressful year for students, thus when I realized that it would now be fully online, more stress was added to me. I was mentally drained even before school started thinking I could never balance that much AP classes, honors, AVID, and my electives all online during the most difficult grade while also preparing myself for college and the SATs. In order to relieve my stress, I decided to set up my number one goal: organize a schedule for myself to help balance my life, school, scholarships, and work for this year.
Consequently, once my class schedule was released, I set to work on how my school year would look like. From Tuesday to Friday, the mornings were strictly zoom meeting after zoom meeting. In the afternoon during the weekdays, I would alternate between school assignments and my fellowship. As for the weekends, they were my time to catch up on AP classes in terms of notes, organizing key concepts, and studying new terms. Every other Sunday, I would look through different scholarships and decide on 1-2 to do for the month. As a result, I was able to create a schedule that helped me balance school with the rest of my life. I admit the schedule is packed and, sometimes, I have little to no time to watch some Netflix, but it has proven to be extremely efficient. Currently, I have been able to get all As in my classes whilst being on track with my fellowship.
To conclude, my number one goal is to balance my classes with the rest of my lifestyle. I want to make sure I do not get mentally drained out and further add to my stress. It would be a lie to say that I have finalized a perfect schedule; in fact, it is quite the opposite. My schedule needs a lot of work considering there are times when I find myself only ever thinking of school assignments. Nonetheless, considering we have only started this year, I believe I can only improve my schedule as the school year continues. I plan to continue adjusting my schedule while maintaining my grades and staying on track with school, clubs, sports, and work. The pandemic has created all sorts of problems but merely backing down is not the answer. I will not allow the pandemic to be the reason why I fail to learn and educate myself in school, and, because of that, I will do everything in my power to make sure that I continue to make the most out of this school year.