Shacara A.
Psychology Degree Program, Child Advocacy Studies & Counseling and Human Services Minors
"My name is Shacara! I'm a full-time Junior here at UMSL majoring in Psychology. I have a wonderful husband and the most amazing 4-year old daughter named Mia. Being a student parent has presented challenges in time-management mostly. I work full-time from 9AM to 5:30PM daily so my time outside of that is spent trying to balance school and personal life. This is challenging as I get off work and immediately start dinner. I try to do homework or study for at least 4-6 hours daily to minimize the amount of time I'm spending on school work during the weekend as I try to allocate that time to be solely for my daughter/family time. Along my journey, I've had to make sacrifices. Sometimes, I have to sacrifice time with my daughter after she gets out of school. Therefore, I'm not always available to play with her because I may have an excessive amount of homework for the week which requires more time spent doing homework during the week. I also sacrifice sleep some days. Sometimes, I'll make time to cook dinner and dedicate time with my daughter after work and stay up until 5-6AM working on homework while she's sleep. While this is not ideal, I'll make this sacrifice for my daughter. In my free time, I make sure I dedicate time with Mia and my husband. We spend time attending weekend events filled with arts and crafts. We'll spend time at fun places like Dave & Busters or Chuckie Cheese. Sometimes we spend days at home playing with bubbles outside, painting wooden fixtures from Michael's, or simply watching tv together. One tip I will share is to make every second count! I know for student parents like myself that can be overwhelming never having a second to breathe from school, work, and family. However, spending time with family is essential and every second you get to spend with those you love, you should take advantage of that!"
