How to Balance HOSA with the Chaos of College

I was lucky in high school. I could study right before the test and do fine, finish my homework before I even got out of school, and I breezed my way through. But for any HOSA member who’s now going on to college, let me be the first to tell you that that surely isn’t the case anymore.

At my high school, we had the same seven classes every day, so when I thought of transitioning to college, where you only have certain classes on certain days, I figured life was going to be SO much easier. Of course, it wasn’t. When you’re in college, there’s no one there to force you to do your homework or study for your exams or make you go to class-- it’s all on YOU. You are finally becoming the adult you’ve always wanted to be!

Adding on top of my transition from high school to college, I was elected as an officer for Indiana HOSA. As an officer, I have extra duties I’m responsible for and I had to miss some days of school for our conferences and school visits. Now that I no longer had someone to collect my homework or personally give me my assignments, it was even more crucial to stay on top of things.

I learned very quickly that the best thing you could ever have in college is a planner. I write down all of my assignments for the week, big exams and presentations provided in my syllabus, sorority meetings and required events, and all of my HOSA deadlines and our HOSA conferences. Being able to see these things on a larger scale in comparison to each other takes some of the anxiety out of worrying about getting overwhelmed. I can get assignments done well in advance that would have been due when I was going to miss school and I can work on my HOSA duties early so I’m not stressing so much when the due date creeps up.