Is life after college better?
Asked by BabycakesI'm a full time college student studying fashion and retail management and I spend like 30 hours a week doing homework. Are there any college grads that can tell me if life is better after college? Do you have more free time? I have worked before and it was WAY easier than being a student cuz when you come home you can actually relax. I have family members that tell me to "do things now while you have time", but I have no free time, so I don't know what they're talking about. I'm constantly working on some big, irritating "creative" project. So, I have no life, my weekends belong to homework. Will it be better when it's over? Basically what I'm asking is do you have more free time when you graduate college, or is it still work, work, work. (Just to clarify.)
Favorite Answer
Answered by Michelle D
“Better” is such a subjective term, but as a recent college graduate, I can say that I do find myself enjoying my free time more—I have more of it in bigger blocks of time, and when I am enjoying my free time, I’m not worrying about how instead of relaxing, I should be studying for my next big exam. As a student, my free time was not in as big of chunks as it is now. I would have class in the evening, for example, so it wasn’t like I was done for the day at 5pm (even if you didn’t count homework). Now, when I leave work for the day at 4:30, I know that the rest of the day is mine until I go into work the next day. It makes a big difference when your free time is in big chunks instead of scattered throughout your day in one- or two-hour chunks. Even if I have a big project looming at work, I know that I have to work on it only for those 8 hours I put in a day. When I go home, I switch from work mode to relax mode because I know that if I’m not getting paid to work on something, I’m not going to do it—it’s not like in college where I always felt that I should be devoting more time to projects and studying. However, if I were salaried (and I’m not), the situation might be a little different because if I had a big project looming, I might feel obliged to put more than 8 hours a day into it. People who tell you to “do stuff now when you have the time” have forgotten how busy a student can be. And to be fair, not all students work as hard as you are, so perhaps those people are sort of assuming that you have oodles and oodles of free time, when instead you’re busting your behind. Moral of the story: Bust your behind now so you can get a good job and actually enjoy your downtime.
“Better” is such a subjective term, but as a recent college graduate, I can say that I do find myself enjoying my free time more—I have more of it in bigger blocks of time, and when I am enjoying my free time, I’m not worrying about how instead of relaxing, I should be studying for my next big exam. As a student, my free time was not in as big of chunks as it is now. I would have class in the evening, for example, so it wasn’t like I was done for the day at 5pm (even if you didn’t count homework). Now, when I leave work for the day at 4:30, I know that the rest of the day is mine until I go into work the next day. It makes a big difference when your free time is in big chunks instead of scattered throughout your day in one- or two-hour chunks. Even if I have a big project looming at work, I know that I have to work on it only for those 8 hours I put in a day. When I go home, I switch from work mode to relax mode because I know that if I’m not getting paid to work on something, I’m not going to do it—it’s not like in college where I always felt that I should be devoting more time to projects and studying. However, if I were salaried (and I’m not), the situation might be a little different because if I had a big project looming, I might feel obliged to put more than 8 hours a day into it. People who tell you to “do stuff now when you have the time” have forgotten how busy a student can be. And to be fair, not all students work as hard as you are, so perhaps those people are sort of assuming that you have oodles and oodles of free time, when instead you’re busting your behind. Moral of the story: Bust your behind now so you can get a good job and actually enjoy your downtime.
