College is supposed to be the best years of our lives. We are young adults – finally out of our parent’s house trying to prepare for our future. We come to college to learn a profession, to experience new things and to prepare for adulthood. But I have found college is the most stressful, difficult and challenging time of my life. Instead of enjoying college, most students are stressing out, partying too hard or spending every second trying to perfect that midterm paper. Instead of it being the best time of our lives, for some students, it’s a nightmare.
At 18, I was asked to pick out which career, which job, I wanted to have for the rest of my life. At 18, I was asked to determine my entire future and then spend the next 50 years or more living with it. When I was 18, I couldn’t even decide where I wanted to eat dinner for my birthday, let alone make a pretty permanent life decision. Picking a college was hard enough, and then I still ended up transferring to another college the next year. I was told to become a journalist, a lawyer, a teacher and a doctor. My head was filled with ideas and advice, luckily I picked journalism and I have stuck with it (knock on wood) since. Going into college is already stressful and exciting, but throw a life decision on top and you’ve got a recipe for one confused and trouble student.
Now most think once you’ve found your major and decided what you want to be for the rest of your life, it all gets easier. Well, someone lied to you because it only gets harder. I’ve never had a college class I deemed easy, or felt I could slack off and get an A. If you’ve found that kind of class, you’re either Einstein or in a community college. Every class is demanding in some sense. There are either hours of reading to do, 300 math problems to do, eight thesis papers to write or six sources to interview. You try and try to do every paper, every problem until you find yourself at the back of Anschutz in a tiny corner at 5:48 a.m. reciting the Declaration of Independence to yourself. You drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with each class and to keep straight As.
A 2012 study by the American College Counseling Association found that 37.4 percent of college students sought help for severe psychological problems. An article published by NBC News says nearly one in five students say they feel stressed most of the time. Students are getting more and more stressed each year as expectations for what college students should have on their resume when they graduate grows more and more. You have to have so many internships, you have to have above average GPA, you have to have a certain standing in your class, you have to be involved in this club or that club. You basically have to be Wonderwoman. And you have to do all of this while still having the best time of your life.
They say that in the end it’s all going to be worth it, but so many students are getting burnt out or so stressed out that they end up dropping out of college or they give up and let their grades drop. The demands of college are tough and they are only getting pushed up and up each year. My advice? Take a breath. Spend five minutes every day reminding yourself that it’s going to be okay. Remember that although you are here to learn and prepare for the future, you don’t have to sacrifice amazing memories to do that. Balance is key; no one has mastered it, but it’s possible. Make a list of everything you want out of college both academically and socially and work hard to achieve everything on that list. Don’t get lost in the hustle and bustle of college, make college everything you want it to be, don’t let the stress ruin it for you.