Students around the globe all encounter one thing the same, how much stress it is juggling a tight schedule between schoolwork, a job, and extracurricular activities after school. Julian Sawe, an RVB choir member and senior, would mildly agree on the struggles a job mixing with school can be.

“It’s a lighter load this year compared to previous years because I had my schedule packed with AP classes, and this year I can finally take a break,’ Sawe said.

He felt he could take a back seat because he isn’t in any advanced classes, and he can just focus on choir and work, without having to cram work into his schedule.

Julian expressed his concern with the choir saying,

“We lost a lot of our stronger singers this year, but we are doing amazing, this is one of the best varsity’s I have been in,” Sawe said.

He recently got a promotion at his job working for Chick-fil-A, which proves he can be on task during work and not have choir or school come in the way. His previous years were a little difficult because he had AP classes that gave out homework every day, but now with his dual credit being online only, he is able to knock it out swiftly.

“This year it has been very easy, but in past years it has been a little harder, dual credit is all online, so it is easy to do, and my job is very flexible about needing time off for choir,” Sawe said.

Julian knew the transition from just doing schoolwork every week to now having rehearsals and practices after school was going to be difficult, but he got used to it and is crushing it in the classroom, and on the stage.

“It was a big transition because I had to dedicate a lot of my time towards choir, and to what I love to do. It was a lot different from middle school and even my freshman year not being on varsity or RVB,” Sawe said. “Come sophomore year we had a lot more stuff to do, and it was a little difficult to juggle everything, but I have gotten more used to it obviously since I’ve been in here for 3 plus years.”

Not only is he able to do everything at once, but he also finds extra time to work, and even after his shifts he gets some work done. Sunday Chick-Fil-A is closed so he has all day to finish any extra work needed to be done.

“Usually during the weekend I get my work done, especially on Sunday’s because that’s when the due dates are usually up at, and I don’t have anything going on like work and stuff, so I find the time even after my shifts,” Sawe said. “If I have a full paper due, I will do half one day and half the other day just like splitting my time evenly, so everything works out.”

Depending on the week and what is going on in choir, Julian can work either all week or only 3 to 2 days a week and he usually doesn’t work on Friday’s because that is the busiest day for him.

“Usually mostly all week but some weeks I am only able to do like 3 days a week and sometimes 2 days a week, but I usually don’t work Friday because that’s when the busiest times for choir are, but I usually get scheduled pretty good hours,” Sawe said.

He has had to call off work for choir only a couple of times because of last minute help they needed or for an event that he forgot to schedule off for. He doesn’t miss much work, which shows the type of person he is, dedicated to being a great voice on the stage, and a locked-in student that can have a job in the mix.

“I have, it’s been one or two times just because of last minute stuff they needed help with or for an event I didn’t know about or that I forgot to schedule off but it hasn’t been a lot of times which is good that I have been able to get as much time as I need off and early access to schedules for choir,” Sawe said.

He has never missed out on choir for his job, because he has the time to put in off days in advance and how they schedule him.

“No, I don’t think I have because I have time to put in those off days for like my work and how they schedule me, so I don’t think I’ve missed anything for choir,” Sawe said.

He did express there was conflict between school, work, and choir during the first semester because he felt packed as he was missing a lot of days for choir events, and he got taken out of school a lot. He felt he didn’t have enough time to do everything he needed and wanted done. It got hard for him until his teachers gave him a helping hand.

“Yeah, I feel like it was during the first semester like I felt kind of packed especially during December, because I was missing a lot of days for choir stuff, got taken out of school a lot and felt I didn’t have enough time to do everything I needed to do and it got really hard, but as soon as I came back into school all my teachers were so understanding and they gave me extra days to turn the assignment in because they know I am a good student and they know I will actually turn my stuff in on time,” Sawe said.