The main reason I chose Trinity as opposed to the other schools I applied to was the people.

I love how friendly and well-rounded the students at this school are! I can seemingly talk about the NBA, Austin City Limits, the new healthcare law and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator all in the same lunch conversation. I love this because it contributes to my overall learning and knowledge of the world. In fact, I often learn as much in my conversations with friends as I do in the classroom.

However, as a result of an incredibly diverse set of interests, Trinity students are what I would like to call “hyper-involved.” It seems like many individuals at this school are involved in too many organizations and extracurricular activities for their own good. People are involved in their dance crews, choirs, Greek organizations, academic clubs, intramural sports, religious organizations and TigerTV while at the same time attempting to maintain their immaculate GPAs.

I am no exception, but this is definitely something I regret at times.

While I loved being involved in various organizations and activities, I came to realize that my “hyper-involvedness” was in some ways limiting the richness of my college experience. I was often more stressed out than I needed to be and couldn’t always be there for my friends when they needed me because my schedule was too busy. Overall, I’d say that the semesters where I was “hyper-involved” were the semesters where I tended not to enjoy the activities I was involved in as much as I normally would.

Basically, the message of this column is that it is wonderful that we, as a Trinity community, have such a diverse set of interests, but we really need to be careful that we do not fill up our already busy schedules to the brim.

I encourage you to leave some space in your schedule, even if it feels weird at first, and to make the hard choice to only be involved in a few extracurricular activities. The most important thing to remember is to do what you love.

We all need time to exhale, cry on a friend’s shoulder, have a friend cry on our shoulder, sleep, eat a nice meal without feeling rushed, laugh, play video games, go for a walk, listen to music casually, read a book for fun, watch Netflix and be still.

Happy summer, everyone!

Samuel White is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and Spanish.