Photo Credit: www.stevenshenager.edu/blog/lifehacks-balancing-work-school-fun%5B/caption%5D

By Jessica Arciniega | Staff Writer |

There is an estimated 80 percent of students who work while attending college, according to thinkprogress.org.

But how many students can say they are required to travel for work while being enrolled in school?

Adding travel into the mix makes things a lot more challenging. Here is my story:

Balancing work, traveling, and school has brought much stress and sleepless nights, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because of the experience and learning lessons it has brought me.

Let me start by explaining what my job is and what it requires. I work for WinCo Foods and travel for two week periods visiting stores in Arizona and Texas.

My duties range from covering a manager on leave to training new employees.

My shifts vary from eight to 12 hours a day, working six to seven days a week.

Shift times start as early as 6 a.m. and end as late as midnight.

This means I’m on call at any given time other than my actual scheduled shift. My work weeks end by clocking out at an average of around 60 hours or more.

There are not many employees that get the opportunity to do what I do for a company of 100 stores, with over 15,000 employees.

Although I am dedicated to my job, school is my priority.

Trying to make time to complete each assignment with the hopes of getting a decent amount of sleep is almost impossible.

Deadlines have to be met and the quality has to compensate for time lost in class.

The only reason why I agree with traveling for work while attending school is because of the diverse group of people I’ve had the opportunity to meet as well as the experiences I have taken from it.

There is much more to traveling for work than just long days and crammed schoolwork.

Working with different personalities and learning how to adjust to one another is beneficial for the workplace, because you’re able to learn how to adapt to others and your surroundings.

Traveling also allows me to make new acquaintances and show them the opportunities that lie ahead of them in their career within our company.

Being able to work side by side with other trainers and observe their techniques has been beneficial as well.

Seeing new employees motivated to work and succeed is what keeps me motivated to work that much harder.

The greatest reward is hearing employees express gratitude for my persistence in training them. It is a rewarding feeling due to the fact that I am required to travel for weeks at a time, while managing.

The benefits of traveling for work go beyond employee and management interactions.

I get to experience unfamiliar social cultures other than what I’m used to.

Traveling has provided me with the chance to experience and learn different ways of life.