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Emerie Elkins

Prof. Blouch

English 1201

1 April 2020

How to get through college happy and healthy

In the final few months of senior year many students are gearing up for their next

chapter in life, which for many will be college. The art of getting through High School

has been mastered but now how do we get through college while being healthy and

happy? There are three key points to know, which is time management, money

management, and having plan maps. This is a very important point in your life which

will have many more factors to being successful at this point, but these are the most

important and will help you in the other areas.

Being successful in college can mean a variety of things that is why this paper is

going to focus on making it through while maintaining your happiness and your

wellbeing. These two points can tend to be the hardest to keep up in new situations. To

be happy means to not run yourself into a hole of unpleasant emotions such as depression

and anxiety. By saying being happy means to get through with a clear mind, which can

often get clouded by the new ideas and adventures going to a larger place can bring.
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Health is also a large thing people can tend to neglect when transitioning. They

run their bodies down by trying to do every single activity that comes to mind. That is

where time management, money management, and a plan can come into play and help.

Time management is the act of being responsible with the time you are given and

the activities or projects that need to be completed. Brooks said that a “solid time-

management plan can help you stay on top of your workload without feeling

overwhelmed” (How to Be Successful in College: The Recipe for Future Students). With

that it can reduce the stress that comes with completing work last minute. Not only does

time management come with getting school work done but also overbooking. Knowing

the right schedule for your body plays a role too. Cramming in too many classes or

activities in one day affects the quality of work that gets completed. It goes from

completing it to its fullest potential to just getting it done to be good enough, which then

just makes even more stress about the grades or critiques.

By practicing good time management skills it will increase your happiness. The

key to really being effective with time management is not filling every hour of the day

with something to do but to know when to work and when to have the down time. Pick a

couple days a week to truly put yourself to work, and then keep one self-accountable to it.

When there is down time sometimes the smart idea is to go work on the paper that will be

due in a couple weeks or make the phone that has needed to be made. Using that

extra can lighten the future load. Many people believe that less stress means more

happiness.
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Some people may say they love to be overworked and constantly have something

to do every day and every hour but it does not truly make one happy. Studies have

shown “the more hours’ academics spend on research, the more dissatisfied they are with

their jobs. The reason academics work so much isn’t out of sheer passion – it is out of

pervasive publish-or-perish pressure” (Had). This means that by putting too much time

into one aspect of life can deteriorate the connection it originally had, and that can pull

the happiness that was once there away and know there is a void which will trial into

other aspects. When one starts to feel this way it can then put them into that hole of

depression concerning any type of work. So by learning the time balance you create

space for positive feelings.

Now concerning the health of someone. As said before knowing not to overfill a

day with things that need to be done is the key. When creating a time schedule it is often

that time for sleeping and eating gets left out which can lead too many bigger issues in

the future. Studies say that between the ages of 18-19 is the most common age for eating

disorders. No type of disorder is healthy so making sure to book in time to sit down and

eat will greatly benefit the body. Sleep is also important. It is important to have a good

night's sleep instead of sporadic naps. The body needs to have the proper energy so it can

do what is necessary and to the fullest of its ability.

Next point to making through college happy and healthy is knowing how to

manage your money. As it is known many people who go through college are simply just

not the wealthiest, therefore knowing how to manage it and make it will greatly benefit a

college student. There are four steps from an expert, Dave Ramsey, that will help you to
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manage your money, “step 1: create a budget, step 2: get on a money management plan,

step 3: set a firm financial foundation, and step 4: invest and save for your future”

(Ramsey) When creating a budget you first go through the necessities like bills, food, and

savings. You must prioritize what your money is to be spent on and never spend more

than what you have in your possession.

There are extra things like trips and clubs that you will have to factor in is why

you create the plan, all fun activities can be done but not without some prior thought and

a plan. It is a known fact that things do not come free. So in order to go out and do stuff

you have to make the money and create the foundation. Finally is to look to your future.

The first thing that should be paid with your bills is your savings. Once the savings is

created it should never be touched unless it is for the reason it was created for.

While money doesn't buy happiness, it does play a factor in creating it. The

activities for college may be cheaper but there are a whole lot more so it is important to

find the balance in them. There is also the school spirit factor of college such as games

and parties, so that can be a cost but when there is a budget for the money people are less

stressed about having money to participate in those activities. Being careless with money

is one of the major factors with stress. So the sooner money is learned to be managed the

right way the better someone will be and the happier they will be.

Money management also plays a role in people's health. College is the place

where people truly become adults, and what comes with that is insurance. Insurance is

super important because often people are far from home and do not have the luxuries of

having parents taking care of them, or getting cheaper medicine. The doctors will be
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used more than they probably have been before but that comes with a hefty cost. Along

with that, people in college are experience an immense amount of ne found freedom

which comes with some pretty stupid ideas which might end up with someone in the

hospital, so having some extra money helps you from the worries of not having it to

cover the costs. “Emergency savings funds are crucial to anyone’s long-term financial

health. Life is full of financial curve balls and your emergency fund serves as a safety net

that you can fall back on for those “rainy days” where you find yourself experiencing a

financial crisis”(The Complete Guide to Money Management for College Students) .

This is just one important thing because “Finances are one of the main reasons that

students drop out of college” (The Complete Guide to Money Management for College

Students) which is sad but true. When somebody is in control of their money, the person

has a control of themselves which only sets them up for success in college, and if you

create the good habits now they will be able to be taken through the rest of life. This is

the hardest to come by. Young and dumb is often piled with how college kids are with

money, but the following the steps will only help when the times get rough and they are

100 percent on their own.

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Fig. 1. Main reason students dropout is money issues. (Student Drop Outs)

The final piece to insure someone gets through college happy and healthy is to

have a plan. This is a broad statement but that is what makes it so effective. To get

through anything in life, not only college, a plan is necessary. When people go into

college without a plan for a goal they get lost. The plan should obviously be getting a

degree but there need to be short term plans to keep on the path. “By developing an

education plan or a plan for college, you are getting your dreams down on paper, and that

is the first step in accomplishing your life goals” (Mapping Your Future). This plan is

much like creating stepping stones to the other side.

Plans do not only need to be incorporated into the big picture of schooling but also

plans for your days, money, and friends. It is said if there is a plan before going into

college about how to make friends the possibility of losing yourself is lessened.

Plans help with your

happiness because most

people are goal oriented.

Then a plan is created with

stepping stones toward a

big goal, someone feels

more motivated to continue

Fig. 2.Steps to achieve

goals shown (Create an Action Plan) because of the little celebrations along the way.

For example, the goal is to graduate with a degree that is very daunting so it needs to be
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broken down into the years of schooling, which is still a very large gap in stepping stones

so it needs to be broken down again into what needs to be done within that year of

schooling. This creates an opportunity to really dig deep into what you want to get done

along the way and creates time to celebrate the smaller wins within life.

With large goals and no plans people become discouraged and drop out because it

feels like they are just treading water, but once the plan is written out and can be checked

off the progress can be visually seen. The once daunting goal is not as bad. The

important part is to focus on each step, and to never take the short way out because you

cannot really be happy with the progress because it's not the real deal.

As for your health a plan will keep someone from overworking themselves to get

something done on an unrealistic timeline. When a goal is seen sometimes the first

thought is how fast it can be done, then it is worked on until the person is drained, and

that is never good especially for a college student who has various goals for various

classes. Again college can be the first time someone is on their own without

nagging of work to be done or help with a schedule to do work. So a plan is helpful to

keep them on track without the overload.

A plan also makes sure there is a way to get whatever is wanted to get achieved

can even be done. It is common for a goal to put out but until a plan is created you will

not know if it can be done.

Every college student has a different schedule but the way to set it up is all the

same, this is where the help of time management comes in. Know your body schedule

and classes then take that to plan out your day, and make sure to include time to eat and
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to sleep a proper night's sleep. What will also help is if a study time is made set in stone

to the schedule, a plan should be made for that study time too. Sometimes spending all

that time on one subject is less useful than splitting it up into pieces and spending twenty

minutes on each subject. It is also useful to have an idea of what to do if you end up with

some extra free time.

College is really just about learning to step up and being an adult. There are many

other aspects than just making sure you are happy and healthy but if you learn how to do

that first everything else will fall into place

Success is something everyone wants, but the type of success is what creates the

differences of people. I believe to be successful in whatever you do you need to be happy

and in good health because then what would be the point in doing it. By definition

success means “a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity”, so the

aims needs to be figured out before just asking for that success.

The most important takeaways is that in order to reach whatever success is wanted

there are three important points to learn before the new situations. Those are time

management, money management, and a plan. It is one's job to make sure they set

themselves up to be happy, healthy, and successful.

It all starts from the inside of having control over what can be controlled. Time

management will save someone the stress of everything crashing into one day, which will

save their health and happiness equally. Money management will save college students

from many stupid ideas that may come up. Whether managing money means not

participating in a bad plan from it not fitting in the budget, or it being doing the dumb
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idea and having the money to cover it. It will save them the worries and actual costs.

Finally a plan, it will prevent the feelings of failure that may rise when not really writing

out the goals. To conclude to be happy and healthy in college it is about having a plan

and knowing what it means to you.

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Works Cited

“About Eating Disorders.” ABC, www.anorexiabulimiacare.org.uk/about/about-eating-

disorders.

Brooks, Ashley. “How to Be Successful in College: The Recipe for Future Students.”

Rasmussen College, 3 June 2019, www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-

life/what-it-takes-to-be-successful-college-student/.

Future Inc. “Back to Topics.” Mapping Your Future: Success in College Guide,

mappingyourfuture.org/successincollege/collegeplan.cfm.

“Inside Higher Ed.” Time Management Is the Key to Happiness (Essay),

www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/03/09/time-management-key-happiness-

essay.

“Money Management for College Students - Self.” Self, 14 Nov. 2018,

www.self.inc/blog/money-management-for-college-students.

Ramsey Solutions. “How To Manage Your Money.” Daveramsey.com, Dave Ramsey,

29 Oct. 2019, www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-to-manage-your-money.

Truex, Leslie. “How to Create an Action Plan to Achieve Your Home Business

Goals.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance Small Business, 7 May 2019,
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www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-create-an-action-plan-to-achieve-your-goals-

1794129.