What I Wish I Knew Before Starting University

Group Projects, Two Jobs, and Finals — Something Had to Give

I still remember the spring semester of my junior year, not because of anything particularly triumphant, but because of how gloriously it all fell apart. In retrospect, it reads like the plot of a B-grade student drama: overloaded schedule, a group project that refused to cooperate, two part-time jobs, and finals looming like judgment day. Classic. But at the time? It didn’t feel classic — it felt like a slow-motion collapse.

I’d love to tell you I managed to balance everything perfectly with color-coded planners and 5 a.m. workouts. I did not. Instead, I limped across the finish line, fueled by gas station coffee and emotional whiplash. But I learned a lot in that chaos, and I figured I’d share — just in case you're also juggling too many plates and wondering which one's going to shatter first.

The Group Project That Broke Me

There’s something inherently unpredictable about group projects. You either land in a dream team or end up doing interpretive dance around five conflicting schedules and three different ideas of “done.” Ours was the latter. Four of us, each drowning in our own way, trying to piece together a marketing strategy for a fictional eco-startup. One of my teammates vanished after the first Zoom call and reappeared two days before the deadline with a file named “finalfinalv3.docx,” which — spoiler — was neither final nor version three.

I picked up their slack. Of course I did. I was already knee-deep in editing the slide deck when I realized I’d also agreed to cover someone’s Thursday shift at the library and forgotten that our final exam in cognitive psych was that same morning. Great.

Group work can teach collaboration, sure. But sometimes it teaches triage — deciding what (or who) needs saving and what you just have to let go of. I wish we talked about that skill more.

Working Two Jobs Because One Isn’t Enough

By that semester, I was working weekends at a bookstore downtown — which, in theory, was my “fun” job. It smelled like old paperbacks and sold overpriced literary-themed candles. But I’d also picked up shifts at the campus café because I needed the extra hours. Rent doesn’t care about your GPA. Neither do groceries. It turns out you can memorize flashcards while wiping down tables, and if you're lucky, no one notices you're mumbling about neurotransmitters next to the espresso machine.

I once fell asleep during my 8 a.m. lecture after a night shift and dreamed the professor was teaching us about Shakespeare through latte art. Honestly, not the worst idea.

The thing about working while studying is you’re always calculating energy. “Can I read 40 pages between shifts?” “Can I survive on ramen for one more week?” It’s a mental calculus most working students know by heart, and it's exhausting. You’re always a little behind somewhere — academically, socially, or just emotionally.

Some nights, I’d stare at my to-do list and just laugh. Not because it was funny, but because it was either that or cry. And if you're in that place, you’re not alone.

Finals Week: The Great Equalizer

Finals week doesn’t care if you’re working two jobs or struggling with your group project. It just shows up like an uninvited guest, rummaging through your peace of mind and breaking all your nice dishes. I tried to study at the library, but it was packed with the same tired-eyed students I’d seen at the café earlier that morning. We nodded at each other in mutual despair, like soldiers in the same trench.

By this point, I was so behind on my term paper that I actually Googled pay for an essay — not to cheat, but because I wanted to see if outsourcing parts of my life had become a legitimate coping mechanism. I didn’t end up using anything, but it made me feel oddly better knowing it existed — like a safety net I didn’t know I needed.

And no, I’m not ashamed. We need to normalize asking for help in all forms. Whether that’s therapy, tutoring, food stamps, or yes — even essay help. Survival looks different for everyone.

When Something Has to Give (Let It)

I wish I could tell you I aced everything. I didn’t. I turned in my marketing project a few hours late, missed the bonus questions on my psych exam, and didn’t show up for a friend's birthday dinner because I simply forgot. My grade in one class dropped from an A to a B+, and I sobbed in the shower for twenty minutes on a Thursday.

But I also made it through. I learned where my limits were and — maybe more importantly — that it’s okay to hit them. Perfection is overrated. Sometimes you’re just proud you showed up.

One of my classmates swore by kingessays.com, and honestly, I kind of understood the appeal. If you’re swamped and just need help organizing your thoughts or offloading some of the work, there’s no shame in that. The academic system doesn’t always account for real-life chaos, and we all find ways to cope. Some of those ways even come with grammatically correct citations.

We romanticize the hustle — the all-nighters, the “no days off” mentality, the idea that real success means never letting a single ball drop. But that semester taught me the opposite: real growth came when I let something go.

And in my case, what I let go of was this idea that I had to do it all perfectly. That I couldn’t ask for help. That working myself to exhaustion was some kind of badge of honor. It’s not.

Final Thoughts from the Other Side

If you’re in the middle of a semester like this — one where you feel stretched thin and slightly unhinged — I see you. And I promise, it won't last forever.

Let something give. Choose your sanity. Say no to that extra shift. Ask your professor for an extension. Delegate in your group project, even if it feels risky. Or at least, take a nap before that 9 a.m. final.

No one gets a gold star for burnout. But you might just find, like I did, that surviving with a little bit of grace (and maybe some scrambled eggs at midnight) is its own kind of victory.