Let’s be real. College is stressful. As the years go by, we reach a whole new level of stress with every assignment, quiz, paper, test, presentation and exam. Students juggle clubs, organizations, journals, and jobs simultaneously.
Too much stress is never a good thing. There are days when it feels like my whole body is tied up in knots, days when even five alarms can’t wake me in the morning and coffee seems decaffeinated to my system. There are weeks when college students find all their work piles up at once, and for many of you reading this, that time is now.
Our weeks are filled with a cornucopia of work and stressful situations. In times like these, everyone needs to find some way to relax or release their pent-up tension. Sure, for some, studying comes easily and they’ve worked hard all semester, and somehow, midst all this chaos, they’re okay. However, for the many that I’ve talked to (myself included), we’re just trying to keep our head above water.
I watch Game of Thrones. I sit back in my blue swivel chair alongside my two roommates and we let the trance of political intrigue, plots, violence, murders, and sexual desires calm us. For 45 minutes, we forget our problems and pressures and enjoy the glorious fantasy of another world we don’t have to live in.
But afterwards, we have to get back to our work. If we’re constantly in a state of stress, our work ethic will eventually fail us. The hours we spend working when we should have been sleeping will put us out in the middle of class or when were trying to finish an annotated bibliography the night before it’s due.
For those of you who haven’t yet done so, I would implore you to find some way to alleviate your stress. And by the way, drinking on the weekends doesn’t count. During my three years at App State, I’ve met maybe four students who don’t drink. For the most part, we all do. But getting drunk when you’re feeling stressed won’t fix your problems. Find alternative methods that don’t leave you feeling like a train wreck when you wake up in the morning.
College is the gateway to jobs, dreams, alcohol, marijuana, friends, clubs, communities, but most importantly its a place for students to grow and develop better survival mechanism. Relaxing is one of those.
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