I don’t know why I ever thought being a college student meant I would have more time. For some reason I had the unrealistic idea that students had all the time in the world to sit around watching television, sipping lemonade and hanging with friends.

There are still 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week – the same amount of time I had in high school, elementary school, etc. I guess I just assumed classes, homework, sports, organizations and work were commitments that wouldn’t use up all of my time. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Time continues moving on; I would even argue it goes by too quickly. It sounds like something my grandparents or parents would say while looking at me and remarking at how fast I was growing up. I can still hear it. I thought time was crawling slowly.

Once I made it to high school and became more involved in sports, clubs and organizations, the days passed more quickly.

Yet, somehow I was not prepared for college to flash by me in the blink of an eye. My goodness, how does the time fly?

Now it seems I have joined my family in the time express lane. I will soon be finishing my sophomore year at Simpson. The time has seemed to speed so quickly that I don’t even know where it went, which, by the way, is not the result of drinking excessively.

Instead, my time is filled with many time-wasting habits. Many people could create lists just as long and even longer. Who knew college would take up so much time?

I’m always amazed at how little work I can get done in a day while still doing so much. For instance, today I wanted to write three articles, two for the newspaper and one for the yearbook.

Well, let’s just say that this is the first article and it’s 11:28 p.m. So what happened to the rest of my day? I spent time working out, attending classes and a luncheon, helping out my coach, hanging out with my roommate and going to room selection – which is a whole other perspective article that I will avoid.

Somehow the day slipped away and my articles got pushed to the back burner. I can’t even imagine how other people, much more involved than me, manage to find the time to get anything accomplished. My “to do” lists always have more things left to do than those that actually get crossed off.

Somehow we all seem to cope with the circumstances. My image of sitting around all afternoon drinking lemonade and watching television because I have nothing to do may have been a little far-fetched, but I can’t say I’m sorry it’s not true. College life is all about deprivation.

College students lack money, time, sleep, energy, good nutrition and sometimes maturity or good judgment. This is what college is all about.