I was putting off this post as i felt that it was pretty subjective depending on individual's capacity, circumstance and objectives that might come from taking this path. But after receiving a dm on this topic after my previous post , i decided to just give my take on how manageable this path is, and what u'll be sacrificing / gaining from this.
ITS A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT 🏃🏻♀️💨
Will i have the energy to keep up?? No more leisure time? I think this is the biggest concern one would have when taking on full time work while pursuing a degree. I agree that working full time is already tiring enough, after 530-6pm you just want to toh to recharge for the next day of work. But there's still class / catching up on assignments / studying to do at night.
My work hours are from 8:30am-6pm, then i head for classes from 7-10pm. And because i live in the north-east, i reach home about 12am. Classes are about 2-3x a week, but there are usually also assignments and tests to study for in between. Weekends are also usually filled with studying. It's tiring, but honestly, it's definitely doable, and in fact can be a breath of fresh air switching between different environments as it won't just be office hours day in day out, u'll have some sort of student life sprinkled in too! But,
PACING is extremely important, as this is more of a marathon than a sprint. And never have the chiong ahh mindset that you'll be able to study every single day. The burn out will only hit you much later on, and very badly, which will also just affect everything else that you need to consistently keep up with. With this, you need to study and pace yourself intuitively. For me, I usually start the semester pretty chill, with abit of studying done consistently after each week of lessons. And if you're really tired, skipping classes is okay as long as u catch up on them soon after (we have recordings although not the best) Then,
Know your deadlines
This is super super important especially as it's sooo easy to lose track of deadlines or what needs to get then when you're working daily. My school also really doesn't help with their messy system of always changing things here and there and sometimes not announcing properly.. 🥲 So i highly suggest u use a planner and make sure to keep it organised with colour coding for your dual life. And only whenever there's any upcoming test, then i'll revise the past classes in depth for the chapters that are tested (as it's also easy to forget abt the lessons u went thru as u work :') so on the contrary, i actually dont rlly like to start early, only when a test is upcoming)
MY ROUTINE, NO TIME FOR LEISURE?? 😀🔫
My weekday evenings would be small revision here and there, attending classes, and some evenings would be for resting / going for jogs. My weekends would usually be working assignments / projects or full revision on lectures i'm unfamiliar with or missed. In fact, you can actually still do side hustles although not recommended, personally i picked up tutoring for awhile during the semester, and i still make time for going on walks, working out, church, errands / adulting duties, rest days and certain one off activities. so u can definitely still do things outside of studying and working, as long as u know also what ure sacrificing. Especially if u have a family. If not, I guess the sacrifice here would be day out with friends will get harder and harder, but it's roughly the same as with any working adult i'd say. In fact, your “hangouts” would turn into study days with friends, which is also fun! I used to have a study buddy that i study on the weekends with veeeery early in the morning. We would get breakfast and slowly make our way to the library and have late lunch and then just never get back to studying and chitchat / rest all the way back in bus afterwards. These are definitely memories that you would treasure and hold on to. So i wouldn't call it a sacrifice, more of a gain of different experiences which are in fact more memorable (: Find your own studying routine where you can sprinkle in memorable things like these, friends, slow mornings, this one go to food whenever u study, make it enjoyable for u. u dont have to suffer to study (:
USING ALL UR LEAVES FOR STUDYING 📝
This is the one that hurts most :') and one i'd definitely call a SACRIFICE. As a fresh diploma grad, my annual leaves are not enough (at least for me) for both exam dates and studying for exams. I usually use up all of my AL for exams and studying, so that leaves me no time for travelling overseas or other events. But i do know of friends in my course that only use their leaves for only the exam dates, and some of them even have exam leaves provided by their company too. So it really depends on what level of studying time u need, how much you prioritise studying, whats more important to you, and the nature of your job / company u work in too.
FINDING THE RIGHT KIND OF WORK 👩🏻💼
Unfortunately with studying, your line of work has to be factored in more than simply just the working hours. The nature of your job, does it require high mental / physical energy from you? Does it require you to do many courses? Is your team able to be flexible enough to accommodate certain situations like your need to take leave for a test, or to leave work on time to go for classes? Ultimately though, it's your choice whether to prioritise your work or school more, if u don't mind sacrificing some study time for a project at work, then that's a choice you'll have to make based on your value of importance. But it's ofc not impossible to do both, i did take on projects at work too, but the nature of my job can be quite routined, which helped me in regulating myself for focusing in school too such that my mind isn't everywhere. So finding the right kind of work / job rlly plays a big role in this!
All in all, one would think that going the private uni of 1.5yr route to be the fastest way just get the cert and start grinding and earning. I sometimes feel that way too, as i feel like i've been studying way too long HAHA also been through burn outs, anxiety, restlessness, loneliness, and what not. but i still don't regret this decision as despite all that, the experiences and memories you gain from this long winding route would be truly much more deeply bound to u. whether the good or bad, the strategies u develop to cope, toxic traits u learn to unlearn, the soft skills u pick up along the way, the actual technical skills u learn. they all dwell in u over the years and shape u who u are. so honestly, i believe everyone wants to quickly finish up their education, including me, as doing adulting while still being bound by a student is really quite a challenge. but if ure unable to afford private uni, take in a different perspective, ure working to pay off what u gain, and also, u get to still have a piece of that student life as u take up more responsibilities as an adult. so this path is rlly dependent on what ur values are in life, what are ur objectives, ur bandwidth, ur capacity, whether or not u want to embrace this long chapter in ur life. but one thing's for sure, its definitely doable! its only whether u want it enough.
