The sun shines everywhere as the student sits down in the green garden to begin his fun activities and plans. Friends show up at a time and begin to enjoy their free hours as they approach the end of the school days.

It’s a new day filled with different people and new projects for Jessamyn Vasquez.

As a high school freshman at NYC iSchool, he describes his fun and interesting days and how they connect to tasks and frequent enjoyable time. The use of free time is dedicated to friends and family while finding a way to engage in school.

“I usually spend school time around my teachers focusing on my assignments and work, while leaving free time to spend with friends,” Jessamyn said. “Spending time with friends makes me excited for school days, and spending time with family makes me excited for the weekends.”

This is important because being excited and happy can follow other emotions connected to stress and feeling overwhelmed from other necessary work.

School time is important to him as well, just in different ways. “My school time is used to finish school work by myself and get assignments turned in on time,” he said.

Jessamyn has mixed time to spend on specific school subjects, depending on his school hours and amount of free time to finish any homework  “In iLearn, I do my work pretty fast so that I don’t spend too much time on the mastery essays,” he states confidently.Different subjects expect a different amount of work.

Jessamyn attends six periods on a typical school day.

“I try to spend all of my time on Algebra because that’s the class I have the worst grade on,” Jessamyn said. For him, school time is divided into multiple areas in different types of courses to focus on.

He also considered attending office hours for several days before any mastery assignment due for his course. These hours are forty minutes, three times a week.

“I see my teachers during office hours to talk about what I am struggling with and what I have accomplished,” he said. He adds on by saying, “Especially when I have a mastery assignment due soon to get feedback.”

Jessamyn also utilizes his free time by doing different forms of activities.

“I chill out with my younger brother at home while playing video games,” he said.

Jessamyn owns a Playstation 5 at home and he claims to “play video games such as Fifa and Minecraft on the weekends,” he said. He also spends most of his “at home time” with younger siblings.

Last weekend, Jessamyn used his free time to play his favorite sport with outside school friends in a nearby area.

“I usually go to the Central Park uptown to play baseball with a couple of my friends three times a week,” Jessamyn states. He added, “I got a burger for lunch with my friends.”

From there, time is divided into different activities and plans. Some plans are with friends during non school days, while others are in school. Overall, time is used in a significant way based on goals and points of achievement.

“I talk to my friends after school about how our day went and to finish some homework too,” Jessamyn said. He uses more outside resources for school tasks that benefit his total school hours and how he focuses in class.

Jessamyn plans his time effectively as it’s a huge deciding factor for how his days go. “I have to balance playing with my friends with school work so that I finish everything I need to do,” Jessamyn said.

Let’s look further into this topic but from a public point of view. The importance of free time for students can’t be denied by any individual due to the fact that students are also human beings. Furthermore, Nicholas Maldonado states that “free times provides students with a sense that they are trusted, responsible members of your school community.” An engagement in class is just as significant as having fun, right?

Of course, students even have the capability of learning within their free time, both academically and socially.

The overall takeaway is as follows: balancing work and free time day by day may be the secret to finding an optimal sense of wellbeing. Regardless of being a student, happiness and life achievements should be prioritized.