Students maintain positive attitudes amidst hectic schedules

By Linden Terpstra 2010

Preceding each weekly home football game on Friday nights, junior Brianna Glenn lines up in her dance uniform and marches onto the field to play the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Immediately after, she tosses her instrument to someone else in the clarinet section to sprint across the field to join her dance team and move to the school song.

This is just one example of how her day is a mad dash from start to finish. Being involved in marching band, dance team, multiple other activities and holding a part-time job, Glenn’s life is far from motionless.

“Dance team is really fun, but there is a lot of work that goes into it,” Glenn said. She is on the competition squad that practices four days a week, including two with the entire performance team.

“During the practices, we drill our dances, work on learning new ones and go over basic techniques to perfect each dance.”

She also holds a part-time job at Four Queens, a local ice cream shop, working three to four days a week. “Sometimes I work the entire weekend, and sometimes I work a lot of days in the week. There are times that I will go straight from school to dance practice to work, getting home at around 11 p.m. to start homework.”

Glenn works to pay for car insurance and gas, but she recently also saved to buy a laptop.

Even with her obligations, Glenn finds high points of working at a seasonal job.

“Four Queens is a nice high school job because it’s closed for the winter and gives you time to focus on your school work and sports.”

Out of her six-course day, five are honors core classes, including chemistry, pre-calc and composition and rhetoric.

“I usually do homework either right after school during my release, in the evenings when I am not working or at 11 when I get home for work,” Glenn said.
“I don’t think I have made it to bed before midnight this year.”

With such a frantic schedule, many people would become mentally strained. “To be honest, I stress out a lot.  With so many things going on, your mind gets filled with all of your ‘to do’s’ and it seems overwhelming. I try to tell myself to take one activity at a time and don’t think about tomorrow’s activities or all that I have to do next week,” Glenn said. “I try to
enjoy whatever I am doing because I know that I’ll look back in a few years and miss these times.”

She is just one of many students with hectic and cluttered schedules.  Junior Allison Duchman has a life just the same.

“Oh, stress. Hate it, but it is definitely a huge part of my life and a big part of a lot of people’s,” Duchman said.

She is currently involved in countless activities including the high school play, student body treasurer and DECA, and she still manages to hold a 4.0 GPA.

Duchman, like Glenn, also works part-time at an ice cream shop, Coldstone Creamery, about three or four days a week.

“I like the fact that everyone I work with at Coldstone is really fun, and it’s a really positive atmosphere,” she said.

“However, the only thing I am not a fan of is that we close pretty late on Wednesdays.”

Wednesday night, “Buy one, Get one free” with college ID, is a big hit among UNI students.

Duchman is also excited about her decision to join the fall play.

“I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people I would have otherwise probably not met, and it’s really cool to see other views on things since my after school activities usually consisted of sports.”

Though she views it as a positive experience, it is another activity to add to her busy and chaotic life.

“Once dress rehearsals start, it will go much longer, and especially the week before we perform it will go to around 9 p.m.,” Duchman said.

She has a limited time for homework in between her busy schedule.

“I usually get my work done between what I have after school, or after work, which ends up being about 11 p.m. or so,” Duchman said.

“1 a.m. is usually my prime bed time. If I go to bed by then, I am set for the next day.”

Even with her overburdened days, Duchman finds a way to focus on the bright spots.

“I try to look forward to something later in the week, whether it’s a football game, or if I know I’m going to a movie with a friend,” she said.

“But everyone has got it in some way, so I realize there are a lot of people going through what I am.”

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