If I were anywhere else but college, you likely couldn’t imagine all that I have to do this week…or even today. Today I have to write another article for this section, write an article for The Tartan, read portions of three texts for my Senior Seminar class, clean up this filthy apartment, wash my sheets, towels and clothes, and read from even more texts for my senior thesis, which is the end-product of my Senior Seminar course. What’s worse is that I realized I needed to do all those things as I wrote this paragraph.

Tomorrow I have to finish all my articles, write a six-page response to the aforementioned readings for Senior Seminar, which must be researched, drive to Christiansburg and flurry about the New River Valley offices of The Roanoke Times and arrange an interview with a woman named Virginia Currie who won an award for her service with the Blacksburg Townscape committee, hopefully conduct that interview, then drive back from Christiansburg, copy-edit some articles for The Tartan, hope there is some fragment of an edible morsel in Dalton, and sit in-yes-Senior Seminar for three hours. Then come back and write more articles.

It’s a good thing classrooms come with desks, unlike some of the lecture halls of the 19th century, or else I’d collapse on the floor and all the money I’ve parted with for my education would be wasted.

I’m also very grateful for the placement of my apartment building. Everything- my classes, the post office, the book store and the cafeteria are all within spitting distance. Also, if I had to drive everywhere, my Nissan with its monster engine would constantly be out of gas, because while its highway mileage is stellar, it isn’t that noteworthy on backroads. And it’s not like I have time to put gas in the damn thing.

What is it about college that sucks all our time away? I know people who aren’t doing a fraction of the things I’m involved in and still they have all the energy of a Perry Como album. You’d think that we could go to class during the day and be involved and do our homework at night, but no, everything overlaps. I’ll e-mail a professor about projects while maintaining the website for The Buchanan Theatre back home.

Unless you’re one of those strange college students who, by some incredible molding of the cosmic forces of the universe, has no classes before 2 p.m., no homework and no activities, you can relate to everything here. And faculty and staff? All the stuff any of us students do is a hill of beans compared to their schedules. Don’t forget full-time mothers, either. Mothers always go gray before other women do, and it isn’t because of bad luck.

I’m looking forward to graduating in December, but is it going to get any better? Maybe my evenings will be more lax, but that’s only because I’m going to sleep nearly the second I walk in the door. Editors spend their days flying about the editorial room, looking over people’s shoulders, reading everything everyone has written, re-writing portions of their work, handling distraught readers, making business decisions, and if they’re lucky, writing an article or two.

On the bright side, I could be a professional mother who does all those things I’ve talked about above. For that, I count my lucky stars.

To the rest of my readership, I think it would be quite beneficial to our community if some of you posted your time management habits. I know I’d post mine, but I’ve somewhere else I need to be right now.