I am a junior at the University of Michigan-Flint. I am a Spanish Education major and have fallen in love with this other language. I visited Spain when I was a senior in high school and that was a deal-breaker for me. I knew I wanted to continue my education learning Spanish. I have also always wanted to be a teacher. Looks like I have my life set then right? Well, sort of. I obviously plan to get married someday and start a family. As for right now, however; this is where my life is headed. I used to live on campus in the residential hall. IT IS NOT A DORM. I was told this very many times when living there... clearly there is a difference (not!). I had a great experience there, but my last semester, I was unfortunately not getting along with my roommate's. So I moved back home. This is where I start my journey today. My family is great. I live with my parents, John and Karan Byrd. They have been married for almost 30 years now. My older sister Amanda will be graduating from college this semester. She is on a scholarship to play volleyball at a school in New York! I am now considered a commuter. Let me tell you, it is hard. I have never had my own car. I share a car with my mom. To her, I am sure she thinks the car is now mine. I come to school Monday-Thursday and she also works Monday-Friday. I normally take her to work and pick her up when I get home, but it doesn't always work this way. My dad has had to "sacrifice" time out of his day to come home early and pick her up if I am not available. This gets annoying, but it's life and life is difficult.
Furthermore, I recently just acquired a part-time job at the mall. I have never had a job while going to school. I usually only work during the summer. I have been a babysitter for the past three years. However, since I am a Spanish major, I am studying abroad next summer for three months, and it is very costly. About $10,000 total. I have made a decision to try and pay for the whole trip on my own and this is why I got a job. I work at the mall. It is only my third day working and I am already worried about balancing school and work. I told my boss I did not want to work more than 20 hours per week and what does she do? She has me working 24 hours. I am nervous to say something to her already, but school is more important to me than most things. I will just have to suck-it-up and say something because if I get rid of anything, it will be the job.
Now that I have introduced myself, I hope you all learn to enjoy reading about the ups and downs of a college student. Between studying, working, being part of a family, having a boyfriend, trying to spend time with friends, it is hard to get some free time to myself. Hopefully, my emotions will pour out onto this blog and it will be entertaining. For now, this is life. My life. La vida loca!
Very nice. It actually does sound like you have a major part of your life set up, few people do. I took two years of Spanish back in hs and all I learned was biblioteca (library) so nice job. Btw. Those are residential halls, not dorms. How embarrassing.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you're trying to pay for your Spain trip yourself. I hope you can raise enough money. I guess that's one of the reasons that I've never been to Spain: the money.
ReplyDeleteHi Lauren! I remember the days when I was enjoying the college life right out of high school and being a commuter student for the first time. Reading your blog brought back all of those old memories and how exciting it was to have a taste of true independence. Going to school, working a part-time job, and trying to make time for a social life in between. These are the memories you will cherish someday, and I will enjoy reading your bolg (and living vicariously through your experiences)!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about working... it's difficult sometimes because for me as well, school is my major priority, but at the same time I want to work because I need money. It takes a lot of work to keep up both and have a life outside of that, so I wish you the best of luck! It almost seems like too much to handle, but a lot of the time we end up balancing things pretty well, considering. At least we have a fun English class =)
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