People say as college students, we should appreciate this life because once we get to the real world, it only gets harder.

Nope, not how I see it. To students like myself, I think about all I juggle every week and wonder how I don’t sleep through Monday.

How do we, as independent college students, have time to enjoy the things we love in the crammed and fast-paced lifestyles we live in day-to-day?

Whether it’s our vehicles, pets, sports or anything outside of school, we have to fight to do what we feel is important enough to squeeze in our busy routines.

However, I don’t think I can call it a routine. A routine is a daily habit that we become accustom to and tends to stay constant.

Maybe I should compare college life to speeding through campus? If you can get past the campus police and speed bumps without with out running anyone over, you’re doing a good job. Once you hit the highway, you may go faster, and the ride is smoother…but there are more cops.

It’s obvious we can’t live the way college students live once we graduate, because this lifestyle shouldn’t roll over into the real world.

I hate pulling all-nighters and stressing over tests, but at times, there’s no choice. I can hear parents and teachers saying, ”If you wouldn’t have waited till the last minute…” So here’s a big congratulation to anyone with the luxury of free time throughout his or her day to study, because not all of us have it. Even though free time studying wouldn’t really be a luxury.

Like a lot of students, I work 20 hours a week part-time at minimum wage, and weekends are spent trying to make extra cash anyway possible.

I use almost all of my check to pay bills like rent, electricity, cable and Internet on a home I’m barely there to use.

Besides the six hours of sleep I get on a good day, I’m not in my apartment more than three hours a day.

To the electric company that keeps my bill over $200: I still don’t know what a fuel adjustment fee is, and why it keeps going up, so whatever it is your tweaking over there, please quit because the thermostat hasn’t left 77 degrees.

Parking at ULM boils down to the question: “Can I make it back to my car before I’m ticketed?”

It’s just another part of the constant rush that comes with college. ULM seems to hire students to give parking tickets, so we won’t see it coming.

I’m not mad about getting the ticket; I knew the risk when I parked here. I weigh the options of either paying $15 for the ticket or parking a mile away and possibly get locked out of class.

What gets me is when I go to pay a ticket, I return to find my windshield has been blessed yet again.

I know Mr. Student rent-a-cop is probably creeping around the corner, laughing and thinking, “Gotcha again!”

We pay $50 for a sticker that’s purpose is to give a spot to park.

So why sell 10x more stickers than parking actually allows?

The parking system just makes students late for class, adding even more unnecessary stress.

Can we either erase half of those vacant, red faculty-parking lines or take out some ticket money to add more levels to the parking garage?

Could you save us a little time, ULM?