To almost all of us students, college is a whole new world. When you first get to college, you have this feeling like you are in paradise. There are parties, drinking, dancing, music and more all over campus and throughout town. You meet so many new people who you quickly become friends with and everything feels perfect.

That feeling quickly changes after a couple of weeks. You start classes, and you start getting assignments and then you start stressing. You were exposed to this fun life for the first week or so and then most of that fun goes away when you start having assignments to do every night, tests to study for and of course classes to wake up for the next morning.

To me, this is a test of our strength and our ability to juggle the different aspects of the college experience. And believe me, it is incredibly hard to balance these things.

Everyone says, “College is about having the time of your life.” That may be true, but it is very easy to over-think that statement and then fall behind in classes.

In my personal experience, it was hard for me to balance the partying and school. I had come to this whole new world where I could party whenever I wanted to, I did not have many responsibilities at first, and I had so many new friends who wanted to party too.

When classes started, it was hard for me to get in the swing of things and realize that I had to set my priorities straight and learn to set a schedule.

It is OK to go out to the bars. It is also OK to have a few drinks here and there. But you must learn to do so at a small pace and not let partying overrule school.

I still like to party and have a few drinks or go hang with friends, but I have learned to balance things and set my priorities straight. I realize that I have one chance to get my bachelor’s degree and I really do not want to be here for 4 years like I was at my community college.

A lot of people have doubted me, belittled me and think that I do not have what it takes to make it through school and be successful. I disagree 100 percent with them.

Just like with me, there will always be people in your life who want to see you fail. So when you go to college and you are having a hard time waking up for classes or getting homework done because you have been partying too much, think about all the haters in this world that want to see you fail.

When I think about these people, it drives me to want to put forth more effort into everything I do. Sometimes it is easy for us to believe we do not have what it takes to be successful. But it is up to us to prove everyone wrong.

Put forth as much effort as you can into college. I am not saying do not have fun, because after all we are young, we want to have fun and we should be able to. But do not let the fun blind you from your main priorities and your studies.

You have one chance to either sink or swim in this whole new world called college.

Andrew Paisley is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or abpaisley@eiu.edu.