An alarm goes off on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. buzzing and vibrating as it skips across the nightstand.  Brittany Bogart, a Northwood High graduate, struggles out of bed, still exhausted from working until close the night before, and slowly begins to get ready for her first class of the day, exercise programming.  With only one break at 9 a.m., Bogart decides to stay at King Horn to attempt to get ahead on different school projects due a week later.

Class drags on and Brittany’s stomach growls ferociously for the next four hours through the rest of her classes. As soon as she gets back home at 2:15 p.m., she whips together a turkey and cheese sandwich, engulfs a strawberry Yoplait yogurt and chugs three full glasses of water. 

Brittany is in her fifth year at Ohio Northern University studying exercise physiology.  Brittany is on track to graduate at the end of the summer, as long as she completes four credits toward an internship related to her area of study. This quarter, Brittany is taking 18 credit hours, the average student takes 15 credits per quarter.  Brittany began her freshman year as a nursing major, but decided to change her major her third year here, requiring her to enroll for a fifth year, with no scholarship money.

According to collegeboard.com, “students should think of college as a fulltime job dedicating 40 hours a week to spend on class, labs, study groups and homework.”

Typically Brittany spends 4-5 hours in class per day, which totals to 25 hours total spent in class.  This means an additional 15 hours should be spent studying or working on homework, but these 15 hours is not the only time that needs to be juggled.

This time depletes with every organization, group or team a student joins. Many college students also have jobs. As the years go on, the demands of classes become greater and the curriculum begins to rise up an increasingly difficult ladder, challenging and preparing students for the “real world”. 

At 2:40 p.m. after she’s done eating lunch, Brittany finishes folding the balled up load of laundry that has been in the dryer since yesterday. As she puts away her t-shirts and jeans, it seems nearly impossible to stop yawning. As the clock strikes 3 p.m., she grabs her black and white Nike basketball shoes, a bag full of clothes and her car keys and heads to the King Horn athletic training room.

Brittany is entering her fifth year as a member of the Ohio Northern University varsity women’s basketball team.  She has played for three years and redshirted her junior year due to a stress fracture in her left foot. During practice days and home contests, Brittany dedicates nearly four hours a day to basketball. 

This includes training, practicing and preparing for that week’s opponents.  When the team has to travel, the team may be gone for nearly eight hours depending on where the opposing school is located. During the season, the team plays two games per week, which means all together Brittany puts an average of 25 hours per week toward athletics.

It’s 3 p.m. in the training room when Brittany begins to heat the majority of her limbs. After 30 minutes expires, a trainer tapes both her ankles before she ventures down the hallway to get dressed for practice. For the next two and a half hours, two-year starting center captain Bogart and the Ohio Northern varsity women’s basketball team practices intensely, conditioning, working on plays and challenging each other all in preparation for the upcoming season. 

“For as long as I have known Brittany she has had to work for everything she gets and I have never once heard her complain, Ohio Northern University head varsity women’s basketball coach Michele Durand claimed.

“Brittany is one of the hardest workers on our team; she does not take plays off and is very dependable,” Coach Durand added

Fatigued, sore and completely soaked in sweat Brittany grabs three bags of ice and rushes around teammates to get into the locker room.  She exploded out of the door and speeds back home to take a five minute shower.  She tosses the three bags of ice in the freezer and puts on her garlic-smelling forest green Padrone’s t-shirt, worn out jeans and powder covered beige hat and heads out the door to start the night shift.

Brittany has been working at Padrone’s, a local pizzeria for five years. Unfortunately, when the economy began the downward spiral, Brittany’s parents, like so many others, were affected. Brittany was forced to take out more loans, increase her hours at work and pay for living expenses. 

Brittany works 20-25 hours a week earning $7.50 per hour.  Since she is somewhat of a pizza worker veteran, she can perform a number of different tasks. 

“Since I’ve been working there for forever, I can do everything; I serve, work the ovens, pizza line, sub line, wash dishes...pretty much whatever the manager asks me to do, Brittany laughed.

“I really like working at Padrone’s; it’s so fun” Brittany said smiling.

During the week, Padrone’s closes at 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. on weekend nights; however, this is not when employees get to leave. Often the manager and workers have to stay later to clean, re-stock and set up the restaurant for the opening morning staff.

“I think a lot of people do what I do. Tons of students work; it just sucks that I don’t qualify for work study jobs; they’re so easy, Brittany laughed. “Padrone’s definitely takes away from me studying and hanging out with my friends but I have to work. Okay…maybe I am a little different.”

The clock ticks to 12:15 a.m. Brittany walks out of the dark restaurant. When she gets home, she opens a can of Spagettios, pours them into a bowl and places them in the microwave. As she anxiously waits for dinner to be fully nuked, she swings open the freezer and grabs the three bags of ice. The microwave dings, she pulls out her meal and plops down on the couch, placing a bag of ice on each knee and the remaining one on her left foot.

After icing for 30 minutes, Bogart washes out her bowl and heads for the shower. At 1:15 a.m. she finally lays down.  She sets her alarm for 9:30 a.m. so she is up for a basketball shoot around at 10 a.m.  With a loud sigh, she closes her eyes and tries to doze deep into sleep.

The demands are clear and, too many, are unusual:

Time needed to dedicate to school per week: 40

Time needed to dedicate to basketball per week: 30

Time needed to dedicate to work: 20

Total time dedicated to these activities each week: 90

Average hours a person should spend sleeping each week: 56

Total hours in a week: 168

Remaining free time per week (90+56=146; 168-146=): 22

To the majority of college students, these time commitments seem insane, but to Brittany, its life and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I don’t have any regrets. I could never give up basketball; it’s my passion. I have to work because I need money and its college – classes are supposed to be demanding, Brittany said.

“I know I live a busy life, but I love it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always stressed but I like having a crazy life, it makes me unique.”

Feature story republished with permission from the Ohio Northern University student publication, The Northern Review.

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