For graduate students, time is a precious commodity. You’re balancing classes, an assistantship, a personal life, and hopefully still managing to get a few hours of sleep each night. If this schedule begins to feel routine, you’re probably sensing your inner drive to accomplish more kicking in; you’re yearning for excellence and wanting satisfaction from this part of your life.

This feeling crept up on me relatively recently, in the year between graduating undergrad and beginning at NCSU. I really wanted to go to bed each night feeling like I had accomplished something toward my goals every day. I have been working for a nonprofit in Elon, NC since 2011, so I expanded my duties there to bolster CAS competencies I didn’t have proficiency with. I’m helping CSLEPS charter a new honor society on campus because I want to leave a mark in Raleigh before I leave. Developing old opportunities or creating new ones for yourself not only improves your resume, but helps satisfy that craving to work your hardest and to your fullest potential.

Devoting myself to these pursuits has been a challenge, as balancing my life around them is difficult. But the rewarding feeling is possible because of that balance.

If you’re committed to consistent time management, working at the peak of your abilities, and creating your own future, then push yourself (but not too far).