By BAILEY RANKIN, Staff Writer

I love sleep! Some might even say I cannot live without it.

I will take sleep wherever I can get it. Two hours in between classes? That is a two hour nap. Five minutes before the professor arrives? I just got a five minute power nap. In fact, I have been known to, on rare occasion, sleep during class. But do not tell anyone…

So, if I love sleep so much why am I always so tired? The easy answer, in a sense, is life. I work, do my homework and spend time with my friends and family.  Balancing all three parts these last few years has helped me work on my time management and put my priorities in check.

When I first started college two years ago, I was very focused on school, work and then friends, in that order. I stuck to that mantra for quite a while, but eventually I got lonely. I soon realized that I had to learn how to juggle those three parts of my life all together. Solely focusing on my school work would drive me insane. Dealing with coworkers was rough with no one to talk to about them. And spending my free time stuck in my room was not good for my mental health.I soon made a conscious effort to find more friends.

Now for the most part I am a pretty calm person. I do not get to wild and rarely do people tell me to calm down. So with my calm, somewhat boring personality, I never expected to find my current group of friends. We are a weird mix. One is ditzy, one is wild, one is laidback and the other one is the mom (that last one is me). We probably should not mix well together, but somehow we do. We have been a part of each other’s lives for a few years now and been through our ups and downs, but we do not see any of us leaving anytime soon. One of my girls drunkenly told me “You know those people who, when you think about your life in a few years, they are still there? You are one of those people.”, a sweet thing to say, even if she did turn and puke in the sink a second later. But it is true. I think friends and family are what get you through some tough times in college and eventually in life.

So in the end, if I only get a few hours of sleep a night, but I am still able to function, I am willing to give up some sleep. Sleeping four hours a night means that I get to spend time with friends that have slowly become part of my crazy family.