Being a student in college can require learning how to balance a lot of time. With juggling between either being a full-time or part-time student and having a full-time or part-time job, it can be stressful being a college student. Always being busy can be stressful, but when you do get that free time, what do you do with it? What are things you do to waste time and de-stress from such a busy schedule.

ECC student Sara McKenzie, being a full-time student with a full-time job can be hard. Juggling school work and working more than 35 hours a week can be tough. Not really having much time for much else can be a drain mentally and physically. But when McKenzie has some free time to relax, the best thing for her to do is doing what she does best.

“Whenever I’m not busy in my free time I like to bake things and when the weather is good I enjoy taking hikes to places,” McKenzie said. “It can be hard finding time for you know “me-time” when you have to worry about either work or school, but it’s so important to do something fun or relaxing even if it’s just taking a nap or watching TV or watching funny videos. Just do it, because without it you’ll be mentally exhausted, trust me I know.”

For Nursing student Melissa Idle, she has a lot to handle with going into the nursing program. Having to take so many classes and passing them and remembering the human body parts can be hard.

“I knew that being a nursing student I’d be busy, but I guess I didn’t know how busy I’d actually be until I started the program here at ECC” Idle said.

“It’s pretty stressful remembering certain things and I was never good at, like, science in high school, but being a nurse is something I’m passionate about doing,” Idle said. “But when I’m stressed out and it feels like too much, I write in my journal or one of my writing books I got from Five Below.”

Ciara Fletcher has been at ECC for three years but with her new addition being a full-time student plus a new mom can be a bit challenging for, her but she isn’t going to stop for meeting her goals for her and her son’s future.

“During my pregnancy, I did yoga and after having my son I decided to continue doing it,” Fletcher said. “But when I had my son, I wasn’t able to continue going to yoga classes so now when he’s asleep and I’m not working or doing homework I take my yoga mat and turn on some R&B and do yoga. Yoga has been helpful for me because it relaxes me, and at first I didn’t think it would do anything, but I  suggest people actually try it out.”

Being a young mom and a college student can be hard for Fletcher but with support from her mom it takes some stress off of her.

“Honestly I’m so thankful for my moms support because if she sees me working on homework and Bryson starts crying, she’ll help me take care of him, and before she would even watch him when I had class before he was old enough to be at the ECC daycare,” Fletcher said.