It’s 7:00 in the morning. The sun is coming up and a cold breeze brushes my back as I thumb around under the hood of a white ford F-150. I check the coolant levels, the oil dipstick, the power steering fluid, and all the while hear the yells of the guys all around me, talking about sports or television, and I groan internally about how tired I am, calculating my schedule for the day ahead. I think about how much homework I have due that evening that I have yet to do.

That’s how a lot of days were during my first semester at Elgin Community College. I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was doing. I was nineteen years old and going to college for the first time, and every class was a nervous experience for me. No one told me what to do, no one told me what college would be like, or that I should try and enjoy it and get things out of it. I had never in my life felt so lost, so I did what I thought I was supposed to do, and I worked.

I worked two jobs during my first semester, which together totaled 50 hours a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I worked from seven in the morning to three thirty, then would have two hours until my first class of the day at 5:30. School would end at 6:45, and I would rush back to my second job and work three hours there before calling it a day. Every day was like this, going from work to school and back, spending all day running around from one place to the other.

I am now in my fourth semester. It can be hard to look back at how that first semester felt to me. College felt foreign, it was something I didn’t understand, and at the time I felt so much more comfortable on the job, working with people I knew, who would joke around with me, and who I felt I could talk openly with. Now that I actually have some college under my belt, I understand that the process of pursuing a degree has been one of the most valuable and gratifying endeavors in my whole life, what I wish I would have understood earlier was that to pursue a degree, you need time.

It’s a hard question, whether or not students should have a job while they go to school. For some students, it’s not even an option, they have to work, to support themselves or contribute to their family financially. I find myself in that boat. For other students, working while in college is a distraction that comes as a detriment to their grades. It always comes as a shock to me when I cross paths with someone who doesn’t have some sort of job while they are in college. But, those people exist, and they often do well in school.

While working during college, free time can often feel like a valuable commodity, that time that every person needs to just sit back and relax can be hard to come by. I end up fidning that time in all sorts of places, during my commute, or during a couple extra minutes in the shower.

There have been many, many times when having a job or two in college has made things harder for me. I’ve found myself counting the amount of hours I have to work on assignments and study for tests, while still managing to sleep and eat in between.

At the same time, there have always been aspects of working while being in school that have been positive for me. Going to work every day forces me to have some sort of self discipline, to make myself somewhat presentable, and to be able to get along with other people.  If I’ve spent all day in the bed of a 2-ton dump truck being screamed at and shoveling gravel out of it, then I’ve already spent all day in a somewhat social environment. It’s not going to be as scary to me to transition into a school setting, or give a presentation in class, as it is going to be for the guy who spent all day playing Nintendo.

My first semester, I pushed myself too hard, and did some serious harm to myself without realizing it. I worked and worked and worked, and never missed a class, and I was overworking myself. My stress levels came to a boiling point and I found myself screaming at one of my coworkers in a violent manner, things had gone too far. Burnout might seem like something that you’re above, that doesn’t apply to you, but it is worth taking the time to examine your own mental health, and how much time you’re putting in.

If I could give one piece of advice to upcoming students I would say “work, but not too much”. I think students should have jobs while in college, but maybe not full-time ones.