For all you lady Tartans out there, I hope you’re enjoying the 100th anniversary Carnival! The sun is shining, and the pressure of being a CMU student is being lifted off our shoulders for a solid few days. It’s our time of the year to enjoy a “real” college life.
The stress culture at CMU is quite unique in that it is unimaginably higher than most other schools’. Between intensive courses, numerous activities, and multiple obligations, time management and balancing becomes a severe struggle. Unfortunately, when the stress and frustration levels hit a certain point, we as girls tend to explode every now and then. Stress multiplies almost as quickly as a virus. Once one person shows a tiny bit of stress, girls around her can pick up on the emotion and start feeling stressed as well. If you’re a sorority girl or part of an all-girls organization, you know how scary that can be!
When it comes to academics, it’s only natural to feel frustrated. That’s why we participate in extracurriculars: to do something we like that gives us a break from studying. But in the aggressive environment we live in today, even the things we love have become a competition. Slowly, the amount of things stressing us out becomes mostly non-academic. Whether it’s our clubs, sports teams, sorority, or even our circle of friends, anything negative that comes from them slowly build up. Next thing you know, we start wasting more time being upset and aggravated over all the issues that arise and start questioning why we do all this in the first place.
At times we can all be guilty of sucking the joy out of our lives when the going gets tough. It’s easy to fall into the trap of letting things that go wrong get to us. However, we shouldn’t be seeing our hobbies as chores or obligations. We should see them as something we enjoy doing, something we love being a part of, something we can turn to when we need to relieve any stress. If our hobbies are a competition, such as dance or a sport, then it’s natural to be competitive. But if what we love to do is not naturally competitive, there is no reason to try to beat everyone else at it. You should love your hobbies and talents for what they are and what they mean to you, not how much better you’re at it than the girl next to you. Most importantly, you shouldn’t let girls who do that taint your love for your passions. In ten years, it is not going to matter who said what or who did what wrong. Don’t let anyone or anything interfere with it or ruin it for you. The second you let the stress prevent you from loving what you’ve poured your heart into is the second it loses all the significance.
A second source of stress common among most girls is relationships. Whether it’s relationships with their friends, family, sisters, or significant other, they take up a lot of our time and energy. Time and time again, girls will surround themselves with people that bring them more stress than happiness. Yet they choose to stick around them because they’re holding onto whatever happiness they got by being with them or friends with them. Unfortunately, this is something we all struggle with, especially myself. It’s great to have fun times with your buddies or your crush/significant other. But it’s not okay to have to be frustrated with these people almost every day. There comes a point where each one of us needs to ask ourselves: Is this person worth my energy? Is this person worth the stress and frustration? Or does all the baggage that comes with building this friendship or relationship outweigh the laughs and smiles he or she brings?
So for the rest of the semester, keep reminding yourself to love what you do and love the people you surround yourself with. Don’t sacrifice your happiness ever and never let stress determine how your days go. Our college days are numbered. Heck, our days on Earth are numbered. There is no need to waste them stressing over things that are not worth our time.
Keep your spirits up high, Tartans! This is the home stretch of the semester. Love and enjoy the rest of it!