How I Stayed Sane While in Grad School

In 2013, I found myself in charge of the Campus Recruiting program at a 100-person technology company in NYC. I spent most of my time each Fall traveling the tri-state area to colleges in hopes of hiring a couple of future graduates for our entry-level roles. At this point I had been out of college for over four years with no thoughts of continuing my education. However, being on those college campuses inspired me - I missed being in the classroom and walking around a campus. From that point on, I knew I wanted to go back to school and get my Master's degree.

It took me two years and changing jobs (to one that offered some tuition reimbursement, I might add) for me to make the leap and apply to my dream school - NYU. In the summer of 2015, I sent in my application and was admitted into the HR Management & Development graduate program at New York University. Classes began a month later.

I knew grad school was going to be stressful, but I had no idea what I was in for. I was working full time and going to class for 3 hours, two nights per week while attempting to maintain a relationship with my then-boyfriend and having some sort of a social life. Forget about cooking dinners or going to the gym. About two weeks into my first semester, I had a nervous breakdown and didn't think I was cut out for this. I stuck it out and focused on taking it one day at a time.  By the second semester, my relationship had ended, I barely saw my friends and when I did there was always this guilt in my gut that I should be at home writing a paper, and that little thing people call the grad school 15? Yeah I discovered that that is a real thing.

So what kept me going? You guessed it: travel. I quickly discovered that the only way I could mentally get through my grueling schedule was to have something to look forward to. I made it my mission to have one trip planned for each school break. My first Spring Break I spent in the Dominican Republic (yes, 29-year old Kim celebrated Spring Break with all of the 21-year olds college students. I can still hold my own apparently). From there I went to Italy for summer break, Puerto Rico for winter break, Florida, Iceland, Texas and my final spring break on a cruise to the Bahamas. With having some sort of trip on the books, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Fast forward three years and I'm finally done with grad school! I never thought this day would come, but I made it. However, I don't think I would've survived without drinking wine in Tuscany, eating Mofongo in PR, riding scooters around Nassau, Bahamas and all of the rest of those travel memories I made along the way.

My advice to any future graduate students? Travel. You won't regret it.

xoxo - Kim