Balance by Alexander

Balance by Alexander - May 2026 Scholarship Essay

The world we live in is always changing and improving. Sometimes we just need a breather. Not many people are willing to give up time for others. Everyone is busy in their own world. The world won’t easily allow you a breather. Time is a precious commodity: we can spend time working, studying, relaxing, being with friends or family, or genuine free time. I was always confident and competitive that I could handle everything, yet I was lying to myself. I had always struggled to manage this concept. I was late often. I didn’t make time for other things in my life. I was taking on too many responsibilities than I could handle. It was important that I took a step back and reset myself.

Sometimes everyone needs a minute to refresh themselves. Everyone has limits no matter where they are. It is important to respect those limits and not push yourself too hard. Overworking oneself can damage your mental and physical health. Stress, insomnia, constant fatigue, weakened immune system, headaches, and burnouts are all signs of overworking yourself. The best chance to avoid these is by finding the balance between your life and others. Balancing time for yourself, work, and peers are all equally important. Although finding this balance can be difficult because of what might happen each day, setting yourself up for this expectation and practice will profoundly discipline you for each and every day oncoming. Change is difficult for those who are afraid, yet finding the balance will give you a more orderly, peace of mind.

In the past I have consistently struggled with managing my time. It took me a while to find the answer to it. I could not find a shortcut because there is no quick path to perfecting a stability between work and personal life. I am still practicing this and although it has been tough, I’m satisfied with creating this routine for myself and my future. Over time I came up with the idea to use timers to allocate my attention towards things in my life. I plan to practice this by setting timers for how much work I would do in a set time frame. The timer will consistently alert me constantly. I have written down titles for the timers so that I know what I should do with the timeframe given. I consistently rewrite these timers for different days and current events happening. Similarly to an employee time clock, it will count the hours measured daily on that certain timeframe. I plan to re-adapt this into an automatic algorithm with reminders. Practicing my routine for different events throughout the day will better build my mentality of balancing personal life and work life. Everyday the routine becomes more difficult to follow, but I have faith that I can achieve such. Another challenge that this routine will have is to maintain it, however once I have fully adapted it into my everyday lifestyle I believe I can naturally do it without the timers.

This consistent struggle has now been proven to be easier for myself. Due to my plan, I am always focusing on getting as much done as possible within the timeframe. Also the fact that I am participating in this adds to my desire to be competitive and satisfies that desire. Overall, this idea has not only organized my thoughts and desires, but left enough time for myself.