I’m a stubborn, hardheaded, go-getter that bites off way more than I can chew and who happens to get stressed out very easily.

I’m a self-sufficient, independent, over-involved college student who forgets to use her planner and rarely writes down important dates unless she was lucky enough to remember to scrawl it in ink on her

right hand.

To be honest, I have 99 problems and most of them are

over-scheduling issues.

I tend to be a walking contradiction and a bundle of nerves fueled by Full Throttle and Iced Carmel Macchiato’s [extra shot of espresso, please and thank you].

Many people ask me how I balance my academic and personal life and I’m here to tell you, I don’t.

While I pride myself in maintaining a cheery disposition and my ability to keep my head above the raging sea of responsibility and schoolwork, I often feel like I’m two steps behind and a little bit

off kilter.

Like when someone punches you in the back of the knee and you stumble forward laughing, trying to brush off the fact that you just temporarily lost the ability to stand upright in a public place.

Cutting the dramatics, I often take a break from my life and think, “This isn’t fair and I can’t do this

by myself.”

So, of course, I don’t ask for help because that would make me completely vulnerable.

If I don’t tell my friends that I’m upset and my family that I’m the definition of a broke college kid, it’s not real.

However, my friends and family have other plans

in mind.

These past couple weeks have been littered with God’s loving hand in my life. I like to look at the people who make an entrance on my precious time here on the Earth as small reminders of His overwhelming love, as well as a little nudge in the back that it’s not my job to complete everything I need to do with flawless

independence.

It’s hard at times to admit that you need help from those around you.

But the outcome is a little sweeter when you realize that sometimes you find you don’t even need to ask; they already know.

If I were to thank all of those who have made me smile or uplifted me in these past two very stressful weeks, I would take up the next

columnist’s section.

I’ll simply say: you know who are.

You work in the newsroom.

You live with me, you attend meetings with me.

You call me “just to chat because I miss you.”

You let me sit at the Listening Post for two hours.

You work at Outtakes, you buy me coke slushies.

You assure me that “We need more kids like you.”

You draw ridiculous doodles all over my notes in class and you offer to pay for an extra lunch or two off campus.

The list almost seems endless.

But it makes me handle my insane schedule and the pressure a little better.

Thank you, my friends, my teachers, my advisors and my family for being perfect in my seemingly imperfect life.

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