{"id":31,"date":"2022-03-09T15:27:50","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T15:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/?p=31"},"modified":"2022-03-09T15:27:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T15:27:50","slug":"determining-your-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/2022\/03\/09\/determining-your-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Determining Your Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello Future-Hawks! I hope you\u2019re doing well. Over the last few weeks, I have been absolutely <\/span>swamped <\/span><\/i>with work. Between classwork picking up, working hours at my job, and participating in my student organization, I have had little time to relax and have fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout my first semester at the University of Iowa, it was certainly a challenge to learn how to balance my time. During high school, my days were planned to an alarming extent. I would get up at the same time every morning, go to class, attend dance team practice, drive to my dance studio, and then go home and complete my homework.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

College was an entirely different experience. The workload is not less, but it does require more independent planning and responsibility to ensure that work gets done. With independence comes the importance of determining priorities, because unfortunately, you cannot do <\/span>everything<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over winter break, I was given the opportunity to shadow two statehouse reporters at the Des Moines capitol for a chance to discover what my work as a politics reporter would look like. While the experience seemed like it would be foolish to pass up, there was a glaring conflict that concerned me \u2014 the first week of classes. Unfortunately, the only day that I would be able to attend a job shadow was the first day of class that started off the new semester.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I was forced to make a difficult choice: Miss syllabus week for a handful of my classes or miss out on an opportunity filled with potential connections and networks in the journalism industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, it is important to note that I did not have to make this decision independently. I spoke with friends, family, and even the professors of the classes that I would miss to ultimately come to my decision. The concept of independence is iterated time and time again, but honestly, I would hate for any underclassman to forget that there are people on and off-campus that are willing to help.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, after evaluating what I had to gain and lose by making both decisions, I decided that I would attend the job shadow and miss the first week of classes. In all honesty, my cost analysis of the situation was not the most important factor in my final decision. It was my priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, I decided that I prioritized experience in my field over a single day of classes. I am sure there are an abundance of people who would disagree with my decision, but with the benefit of retrospection, I am more than satisfied with the decision I came to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision I had to make is not unique in any way. As a college student, I am constantly having to balance the multiplicity of my life, determining what aspects I want to focus on and what aspects need to take a back seat.<\/span><\/p>\n

To simplify that process, prioritization is key. Determine what you want to focus on in college. Don\u2019t let yourself be limited by that focus, but remember it when you have to make several big decisions and budget your time accordingly. College is full of opportunities, so be sure that you don\u2019t miss out on the important ones!<\/span><\/p>\n

Jami x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello Future-Hawks! I hope you\u2019re doing well. Over the last few weeks, I have been absolutely swamped with work. Between classwork picking up, working hours at my job, and participating in my student organization, I have had little time to relax and have fun. Throughout my first semester at the University of Iowa, it was certainly a challenge to learn how to balance my time. During high school, my days were planned to an alarming …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/jami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}