Balancing the workload...

...is hard to do. Being both a full-time college student and a member of an interest group is no easy task. Okay, so perhaps being a part of New Cities is part of my Government 141 class, but that's not the point. The point is that making a change in the community requires time and effort. Like with many other things in life, time and effort must be apportioned in an efficient manner in order to achieve balance in life. One of the things I have yet to learn is to do this.

With me, I either spend too much time on something or not enough. With the New Cities Initiative, I somehow feel that I could have done more. What all did I do, you ask? I attended a few meetings, posted on this blog, and wrote an article that should have gone into the local newspaper that now exists in the form of a Facebook note and a blog post instead. That's it. To be honest, I'm not sure that the work I have done has made any impact on the project whatsoever. Hopefully, it has.

So, where did all the time go? One word: school. My efforts have been hampered somewhat by my other classes. CIS 101 gives you tons of busywork, I had to write an 8-page final for English 200 (not fun) and Physical Geography requires quite a bit of studying in order to well on the tests. Plus, everyone needs some down time in order to stay sane. Since I am a dedicated student who values her sanity, a lot of my time got poured into the tasks above...along with New Cities. A couple of times I have missed meetings due to class, which made me feel more than a little guilty. The truth of the matter is that balance is a difficult thing for me to achieve. Heck, I can't even balance myself on a bicycle unless I'm going downhill! If there is at least one thing I have learned from this experience, it is that I need great improvement in time management.

Of course, my troubles pale in comparision to those who work and/or have children. Melissa Sargent, I deeply admire you for that you have accomplished! Hopefully I will one day be as good at organizing my time as you are. Until then, I will just make up the difference in blog posts.