Adulting 101: How It’s Been Like As A Grad Student

It’s been about one month since I started grad school… phew! Saying that it’s been “crazy” might be an understatement. I’ve had to adjust to being a student again (grad student to be exact), as well as begin to balance some new responsibilities. Here are some thoughts I’ve had over the past couple of weeks.

School/Grad Student Mode

After about two years, I am finally back into student mode. The months leading up to school were exciting. I was ready for a change and eager to learn about school psychology. However, once I got emails from my professors, something clicked and I was brought back to reality… now I need to read 200+ pages per week, keep track of due dates, and coordinate practicum schedules. Ahh, the life of a grad student 🙃. But somehow we’re making it work! One of the department professors said this quote: “What seems impossible, you’ll find a way to get through it.” (paraphrased). I think that’s a great reminder for the rest of my career. There will be lots of challenges that will come my way, but I am able to find a way to get through them!

Making New Connections

In my grad school program, we have a cohort model. All that means is that my classmates and I are stuck with each other for the rest of the program. 🤣 Lucky for me, everyone in the program is amazing and I’m so glad to be learning with them. How many people can say they went over to their professor’s house and drank with them? (for the record, I didn’t drink because I was the driver, but they did have drinks there 👀). I got to hang out with some classmates on the weekend! We went out to get food and explored a local art gallery.

In addition to making new connections in class, I am able to go out to a local high school and shadow a real-life school psychologist. It’s been so fun going around the school and meeting the different people in the team such as the counseling department, teachers, admins, parents, and students. The schools are very open and welcoming to having practicum/grad students shadow the school psychologist! I’m really excited to see how the semester plays out with the high school practicum placement.

Balancing School, Work, and Life

Once I got into school, I had to make decisions around my school schedule. I had to make adjustments and left my old job and coworkers 🙁 As a result, I looked into finding flexible and part-time jobs. Thankfully, I found this one data collecting job and made sure to have it around my school schedule. It’s also helpful to make a visual schedule of things you need to do throughout the day. For me, it’s nice to set time aside for the bigger tasks (school, work, etc.). Then I try to fit in times to study or chill throughout the day. (hint: it’s okay not to follow the schedule 100%. Sometimes you gotta be flexible!)

I’ve been trying to be more intentional about taking days off from working on school stuff. My realistic goal is to have all Sundays off from doing schoolwork. But ideally, I would have both Saturdays and Sundays off… But we’ll take what we can get😩. Those reading assignments are no joke! I also want to get out and explore just a little more (because self-care is a real thing and should be made a priority!👀).

Here are some more blog posts relating to college and grad school. Comment down below any tips you have for grad school (or school in general).

NOTE: check out the chill lo-fi playlist on Spotify to help you focus on schoolwork.

Thoughts About Attending Grad School in Your Early 20’s