{"id":135,"date":"2025-05-06T14:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/?p=135"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:14:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:14:37","slug":"ella-wragge-achieving-work-life-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/2025\/05\/06\/ella-wragge-achieving-work-life-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Ella Wragge: Achieving Work-Life Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexis Spier<\/a><\/strong>
You wake up at 5:45 a.m. From 6 a.m. – 8 a.m., you study. Then you go to class. After class, you go to work. After work, you go to practice. After practice, you go to the library and study for two hours. Finally, you get home. You have finished everything for the day, and now you have some free time. However, it\u2019s 9 p.m. and tomorrow you have to get up and do it all over again.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This might look like an exaggerated example, but this is reality for Ella Wragge. Wragge is a junior political science major at Morningside University. Although her schedule is full, she still makes time for leisure. One might think that because she likes to stay busy during the day that her leisure time would reflect that of her day.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy productivity at the end of the day (she laughs), I\u2019m all done,\u201d Wragge said. \u201cLeisure time is very important to me, because if I were to do productive things all day and night, I\u2019d be really burnt out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wragge admits that her schedule gets overwhelming. She studies for 4 hours every day and does even more on the weekends. She works 18 hours a week at Goosmann Law Firm and 16 hours a week at The Wheelhouse Bar & Grill. On top of that she is on the Morningside Women\u2019s Basketball team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ella is the kind of person that prefers being busy, because the productivity gives her a positive peace of mind. But even she acknowledges it can be too much for her. I asked her if it\u2019s hard for her to find free time. She recommended a schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found that it\u2019s easy to find leisure time when I schedule and make time for myself to do homework. Me waking up at 6 am to study for LSAT gives me time in the evening. As soon as I get off work or out of class, I go to the library for two hours and do as much homework as I can, so the rest of the night I\u2019m not worrying about it.\u201d Wragge says, \u201cI\u2019m wired as a more go with the flow person, but my goals and my schedule don’t allow me to do that, so I\u2019ve had to change my habits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wragge mentions changing her habits. She knows that leisure time is crucial for her well-being, so she is proactive about allowing time to do some of the things she loves. All majors have different demands, therefore some students may have a lot of free time and others schedules may look more like Wragge\u2019s. It\u2019s impressive that she can consistently keep up with this schedule and avoid burnout. What separates her from others is her passion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal is to work for a women\u2019s right organization or an environmental organization or defend women who have been abused,\u201d Wragge said. \u201cIf I\u2019m doing something like that, it wouldn\u2019t feel like work to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a hefty schedule like this, some people might want to collapse on the couch and watch TV or enjoy some videos on their phone. Sometimes that may be all the energy someone has and that is okay. But not all of the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems as though our society has moved towards a more solitary lifestyle. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called it the \u201cepidemic of loneliness,\u201d\u00a0and earlier this year The Atlantic<\/a> published an article emphasizing exactly how antisocial Americans are nowadays. Adults spent an additional 99 minutes at home compared to 2003. Boys’ and girls’ daily time spent with friends decreased by half since 1990. A 2023 study found husbands and wives are four times more likely to watch TV than talk to each other. From 1965-1995, adults gained 6 hours a week in leisure time. Almost all of this time went to watching television. From 1985-1994, community involvement decreased by half.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These facts can be explained by what Natalija Popovic<\/a> calls, \u201cthe lowest hanging fruit.\u201d The lowest hanging fruit is what new technology has programmed us to do. We watch television and scroll through social media, because it is easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Wragge prefers to spend her leisure time in other ways. \u201cI love reading, doing puzzles, listening to podcasts, and going for walks,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing in the sun is good for my mental and physical health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed these were all things that she does on her own. Having alone time is prioritized for many people, but social interactions are equally as important, especially now when isolation is taking over. I asked Wragge if she spends time with others during her leisure time. I was surprised when she answered that she isn\u2019t the kind of person who wants to be alone. In fact, she hates being alone. She loves to cook for her friends and see their reaction when they take that first bite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am much happier when I\u2019m with other people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t even have to talk; it\u2019s the fact that we\u2019re sitting here together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wragge notes how she isn\u2019t afraid of rejection. I know many students who are afraid that the answer they will get to asking people to hang out is no. I also know people who don\u2019t want to face the initial steps of a friendship. Unfortunately, because our society has become more and more individual, people are socially awkward. They don\u2019t know what to say or they don\u2019t know how to carry the conversation forward. Wragge gave me an example of her taking that step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My political science friend… We\u2019ve always had the same classes and now we work together,” Ella explained. “We\u2019ve known each other for two years, so finally I asked, ‘Do you want to hang out outside of class and work?\u2019” She compared making new friends to the first stages in a relationship: “It\u2019s like the \u2018what are we?\u2019 in a relationship, but with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With our connection to everything and everyone all of the time, it can feel impossible to give our full attention to one thing. Leisure time can and most of the time will be interrupted by the ping of our smartphones. One method to try, and Wragge would recommend, is making a schedule. Create time before the week to do homework and enjoy leisure. Allowing time for studies can even provide a better leisure experience, because you were productive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are days where we just want to watch our favorite show to relax, but we can try to decrease the time spent with technology. Don\u2019t grasp at the lowest hanging fruit. Go back to the things you loved to do before technology. A few of Wragge\u2019s leisure time favorites are reading, walking, doing puzzles, and cooking for her friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her passion drives her determination. She is excited by her education and work, because it is leading towards her dream. With that drive to learn, she still takes time to relax and refresh. It\u2019s not impossible, even for Wragge, a political science major who plays college basketball, studies 4 hours a day, and works 34 hours a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexis SpierYou wake up at 5:45 a.m. From 6 a.m. – 8 a.m., you study. Then you go to class. After class, you go to work. After work, you… Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/commcapstone25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}