As college students, we are constantly struggling to balance school and a social life. We are faced with difficult obstacles every day, two of them being, staying in and study or going out with friends. Some think that these two things are easy to choose between, but trust me, they are wrong..
Western Michigan University student, Vica Claeys knows the struggle all too well. Claeys, who is majoring in nursing and Spanish, said, “college life is fun yet a stressful time, when you’re trying to figure out not only what you want to do for the rest of your life, but also what matters most in life”. College is most certainly one of the most important things you’ll do in life. It is where you figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life, and where you meet your lifelong friends.
Copyright: Vica Claeys
According to College Parental Central, “One study has suggested that many students in college study an average of 10-13 hours per week.” That number shocked me a bit, but then I realized that’s a little bit less than two hours of study time a day. However, if you include all the pressure you put on yourself, it could feel like more. “I defiantly do put a lot of pressure on myself”, Claeys said. “Unfortunately to the point where I get stress anxiety and testing anxiety.” Though students, including myself, are guilty of blaming the professors for putting too much pressure on us, they really aren’t. “No professor made you come here, so why should they worry about pressuring you? You are doing this for yourself. We often forget that,” Claeys said.
The pressure of school can and will follow you everywhere. When Claeys goes out with friends, she said that school is still on her mind. “I might be sitting there with my best friends, taking shots of tequila but in my head I am running through all the flashcards I could be putting together right now.” I do have good news for all of you though, according to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s counseling office, going out and socializing relieves stress. Shocker I know. They go onto say that, “reaching out to others helps to ease loneliness and makes it more likely that you’ll develop good social skills, which you’ll need in the workplace.”
I know it’s easy to say that we should stop putting pressure on ourselves to be the perfect students, but it’s true. It really is unhealthy to stress ourselves out. You can still be a good student and live the college life. Some of the best learning you do is outside the classroom, well maybe not in a bar, but hey, I guess you could learn something there. I guess what I’m trying to say is, make time for yourself, take a breather, have fun, get wasted. But you better be in class on Monday morning.