Picture this: you’ve had a long day, and just when you need a nap, you’ve got another class. Ugh. However, there’s an upside to this situation, which is that you love this class. It may be Friday, and you may be itching to head to that dinner with your best gals at 6:00pm, but you’ll still want to go because it’s a space in which the vibes are so good. This is what I call a “comfort class,” and it’s something I believe we ALL need.
Maybe you’ve got a professor that always makes class entertaining, or who is always checking in with you to make sure you’re doing alright—they get you. Or perhaps you have some peers that make class engaging. It could also be the course content which you have a deep excitement about. These are all reasons you might be able to call a course a comfort class; you’re at ease there, and it feels like a home base to return to each week.
This is something that I’ve strived to add to my schedule each semester. I don’t have particular preferences which a course must align with to be a comfort class, although they usually tend to be within my majors. These classes can also engage you in learning new things and exploring something you’ve never even thought about. All that matters is that you have a space to go to with excitement and a desire to learn. For example, in my current schedule, this class is LGBTQ+ Media, because I love discussing movies and shows with my peers who make the discussion so entertaining. I know I’ll smile and laugh during this class, so it’s somewhere I want to be.
Finding the ideal comfort class will probably take some time during your college experience. Coming into college, we don’t always know what topics excite us and what we want to major in. We also don’t know much about the people we’ll be taking classes with and whether or not we’ll like who’s teaching them. Although this might take some patience, you should put emphasis on acknowledging what classes you like most when deciding what to take in the subsequent semesters. You should also avoid taking classes that you dread, when you’re able to.
Here’s a shared truth, though: we’ve all had—or will have—classes we don’t like in college. We have to meet several academic requirements across various disciplines so that the learning we do is well-rounded. When you have a comfort class, the work in these classes becomes less burdensome, because you know that at least some assignments you’ve been given won’t be as hard to get through. We need this balance as students, because too much academic dread can have a negative impact on our mental health and lead to burnout. Trust me, burnout is the worst.
As a last point, I want to emphasize that having a comfort class doesn’t mean you’re betraying “the grind” and selecting a class you think you’ll work less hard in. No matter what classes you choose, you’ll always be working hard—so go on and get excited about doing so!