Balancing school, family, and friends: Family visits from far

Whenever my family asks me if I want to hang out with them, I immediately say yes. When my family visits me all the way from South America, and only stays for a week, I have to be careful when choosing my priorities. Juggling my school work, jobs, friends, and family, is certainly not easy, but it’s a skill that I’ve had to learn. 

When they arrived on a Thursday, I met them at the airport; we were spending the weekend away from the city. Saying yes to this short weekend trip was already a sacrifice. I knew I had two midterms and an assignment due the week right after, but how could I refuse spending time with people I care so much about? It was an amazing weekend. We did a short hike and just generally spent time together. I hadn’t done that since July. 

              Once we were back in the city, it didn’t really get easier to manage my time. My friends were now asking about me, for I hadn’t seen them in a couple of days. My solution? We got together to study. However, I had to stay up late studying, for my whole family still wanted to see me during the day. And to be fair, I wanted to see them, too.  I told my parents and my brothers that I was trying my best to spend time with them. I also reminded myself that I was trying my best. It’s hard for me not to notice when I’m over-working myself, so now I try to always be aware of that. It wasn’t easy for me to come to terms with this, but it’s okay if I don’t always do as good as I expected in school. I’ve learnt that, sometimes, I’d rather get a lower grade than planned if it means spending time with people I love. 

My family’s already back home, and I’m still trying to catch up. Balancing tasks during university can be one of the hardest things to do, but in order for me to learn to do so, I had to firstly sort out my priorities. Mine, I’ve noticed, are different from my friends, and that is also okay. Juggling family, school, friends, and a couple of other things looks different for everyone, and it doesn’t always look the same for me. Now that my family’s away, I’m prioritizing my studies, but also making time to continue seeing those who I care about. Especially now during midterm season, I keep my friends and family as close as I can.