Rise and Grind: Balancing School and Work Ethically in College Life

College can be like riding a tandem bike with your future—you need to maintain balance and steer through challenges or everything gets wobbly and things may fall off (like time and sanity 😅). So when it comes to working jobs outside the university to manage school fees, groceries and maybe even support someone at home… how much of that is acceptable without compromising your growth? Let’s tackle this without getting too preachy. ## The Reality Check Working as a student is almost inevitable now. The average tuition alone isn’t going down—whether public or private, you’ll still likely have expenses eating into whatever budgeted cash flow you got set up by parents, scholarships or loans. But here lies a tricky crosswalk—too many work hours might impact academic performance badly, whereas being too casual with earnings (I mean… who hasn't blown 6 days' worth of income on anime figures?) won’t really lead anywhere responsible-wise. Balance needs careful monitoring, kinda how you'd treat battery life in a game. Push forward without charging and suddenly *buzz!* No stamina bar for late-night lectures anymore.

• Bio major 🌱 → Aim for max of ~18 hr/wk
• Business minor 💼→ Maybe stretch slightly (~ 25+)
• Hanging with Art ✍🏽→ Often better aligned flexible part-timer gigs