This semester, I’ve had a lot less work than I ever have in the past. In my first year, I took a total of 29 credits; every semester since then, I’ve taken 19 or more credits, occasionally overloading if it was only by one credit. Now that I’m a part of the Accelerated Master’s Program, and since I took so many credits earlier on in my Stevens career, I’m taking only 12 credits this semester. This, combined with phasing out of a lot of my major E-Board positions, has left me feeling like a retired old man.
The great thing about being retired is that I have a lot more time to relax. A lot of graduate classes have a small number of big homework assignments, as opposed to many small homework assignments, which makes doing work for these classes far more enjoyable and rewarding, and it also means that I can pick any time of the week to work.
What this translates to is that for the most part, my schedule is entirely under my control. I can pick when I want to work, what kind of work I want to do, and I can take breaks whenever I want. Obviously, I still have obligations with clubs, and I still need to get my work done, but it’s been a nice change of pace since taking only undergraduate classes. So the biggest problem that I’m faced with now is, what do I want to do? I could spend my time in plenty of ways, so how do I pick?
In order to decide what to do each day, I’ve started developing a routine for myself. Now that I have extra time, I’m spending more of it trying to organize the rest of my day. Every morning, I start the day by exercising, either by going to the gym or working out in my room. Afterward, I take a shower and then check my schedule for the rest of the day. Depending on when my classes are, I’ll do some homework or work on a personal project for a few hours. Since I’m taking graduate classes, most of them are in the afternoon or night, so I’m usually able to make significant progress on whatever I’m working on before I have to go to my first class. As I work, I keep track of how much time I spend working on each task so that I can see what kind of work I do the most over the course of the week.
During the day, I take a few breaks by hanging out with friends or watching TV. One of my friends takes ‘Archero breaks’ every half hour, and while I don’t take breaks that often, I understand the importance of giving yourself some time to relax and catch your breath. I’ll usually spend an hour or two over the course of the day taking these kinds of mental breaks.
By the time that I’m finished with all my classes, it’s usually late in the afternoon or night, at which point I either rest for a while or do more work. Most of the time, I like to hang out with the Brothers at my fraternity before going to bed, but I also enjoy occasionally spending a few additional hours working on a project that I’m really close to finishing. In either case, I’ve enjoyed being able to control my own schedule, and I’m excited for next semester!
Senioritis is an Opinion column written by one or two Stevens student(s) in their last year of study to discuss life experiences during their final year at Stevens, and other related subject matter.
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