Water Cooler Talk: Never Forget Who Your Friends Are

 

College can be one of the most stressful times of your life.  You have to balance every aspect of your day to day activities which include school, work and possibly an internship.  It never seems like there are enough hours in a day to get everything done.  Even with your hectic schedule one thing you must do is always make time for your friends and yourself.  

One of my favorite TV shows, How I Met Your Mother, said it best “Never give up crazy times with your friends.”  Personally this is a life lesson that I broke a lot.  I would work too many hours in the week and by doing so neglect some of my friendships.  I would be too tired to go out after work on the weekends and go home to bed. 

Until recently I was completely okay with this.  I knew my friends wouldn’t be mad and understood I was tired and busy.  In May, one of my best friends who I have known my whole life passed away.  Obviously it was a sad time for me and what made it worse was knowing I had not seen him in a while because I was too busy at work.  This is when I knew I had to stop neglecting my friendships and remember to have crazy times with them. 

Now I don’t expect you to quit your job or anything along those lines you just need to not overwork yourself.  Leave some time every week where you can go out to eat or just hang out with friends.  You will never regret time spent with your friends only the times you didn’t.  

Along with the time you put aside for your friends, you need to make some room for yourself.  Life can become overbearing with everything you have to do in a given day.  Make sure at least once a week if not more you spend time doing something you enjoy.  This can be anything depending on what kind of person you are.  Some people enjoy reading.  Others enjoy hobbies.  My escape is going for a run.  Even if the run is only for 10 minutes I know for those ten minutes my head will be clear and I feel less stressed.

These are pretty easy alterations to your schedule that will make you feel less stressed about your day.  Go out and start doing them as soon as possible.  You will not regret it and will be able to enjoy a much less stressful week.    

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Greg Monforte is a Drexel University Sport Management pre-junior from South Jersey.  Currently he works at Not Just Pizza in Sicklerville, NJ and Daddis Fight Camps in Philadelphia where he has social media and marketing responsibilities.  Greg is also the SMTSU Director of Marketing & Outreach.  Follow Greg on Twitter @Greg_Monforte.

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