Student in 12 Performance Groups Confused About Where All Her Time Went

A careful balance of school, athletics, and arts is a good goal for any college student to have. But for sophomore Felicia Walkerton (C ’20), this balance has been thrown out of whack, and, honestly, she says she “just doesn’t know how.”

Walkerton, a member of twelve different preforming arts groups at Penn which run the gambit from theater to a cappella, said her time has just disappeared during the weeks leading up to and including finals. 

According to her fellow classmates, Walkerton counts down to the end of each rehearsal, leaving at that exact time in order to make the different, and often overlapping, time requirements of her different arts groups. 

When asked whether she thinks that her addiction to overcommitting was causing some of her issues, Walkerton appeared dismissive. “No, I don’t think so. I really think it’s the crippling workload I get from my three, hour-long classes that meet once a week.” 

Switching gears, she shifted the blame back to the institution, rather than herself. “I really think Penn needs to do more to support people like me, who needlessly overburden themselves with a variety of groups. I mean, in twenty years, do you think people are going to care if I graduated or not? No! They’re going to care about the supporting role I held in a small theater group that I only was able to make half the rehearsals for.”

Before we could finish the interview, Walkerton was spotted running down Locust, complaining to anyone who would listen about how overworked she is, while also curiously finding an extra four hours each day to sit on her bed and scroll through Instagram.

Good luck with finals Felicia. We think you’re probably going to need it.