I’m nearing the end of my first semester at San Francisco State University and so far its been amazing. I’ve met new people, learned new things about myself and made new memories.
My first semester has been great but the only thing holding me back has been my financial situation. Going into college I thought my classes would be very difficult, professors would be unbearable, and that I’d be spending most of my time studying, but in reality I had a lot of free time between classes to do work or anything else, my classes were interesting and engaging, and my professors were understanding and fair. My biggest challenge this semester was juggling school and work.
I started my job in the summer so I could have some money going into my first semester at SFSU, and it was easy at first. I would get up at 6am and get out at 2pm and have the rest of the day to do whatever, when I started the semester I decided to do less hours so I could focus more on my academics. After about three weeks I started to notice that I wasn’t making enough money to pay my bills so I had to go back to working full time. I was going to class as soon as I got off work, luckily it wasn’t too far from school. I would be exhausted as soon as I got to class, barely being able to stay awake during class.
I felt like I missed out on a lot of organizations/events in school because of my job. I wanted to join a sorority and do an internship but do to my schedule, I was unable to do so.
This spring semester is going to be different. My main focus will be school and work will come second. I think the most important thing I’ve learned this semester was that I still need the help of my parents. I made the mistake of putting a job ahead of my education and I will never make that mistake again.
