College is full of possibilities and opportunities for young adults. But the college experience is often interrupted by the necessary, though stressful, management of registration, red tape, and paperwork. Students easily become overwhelmed by the workload of classes combined with extracurricular activities. So, when registration hang-ups or financial aid mishaps are added to the crowded schedules of college students, stress and panic follow closely behind. However, once cutting through red tape becomes a familiar routine, it can be much less stressful, and help students prepare to handle the red-tape that will inevitably occur in adult life.
1. Recognizing the problem hiding in the depths of your student account is the first step to mastering the bureaucratic red tape often encountered on college campuses.
2. Red tape in college comes in many shapes and forms.
3. Registration snafus can land you in that excruciating eight a.m. class with the campus’ most monotone lecturer.
4. Or, your attempt to change your major could result in adding two more minors instead.
5. Perhaps most frequently, red tape in college often looks like financial holds on your account.
6. Whatever it is, the problematic red tape will often present itself days, if not hours before a significant university deadline.
7. You briefly contemplate the true necessity of a college degree.
8. Before finally accepting the dire urgency of the red tape barring your path to higher education.
9. There are some dependable, helpful resources on campus.
10. And you can always turn to the wisdom and experience of upperclassmen.
11. But they are often just as paralyzed by the red tape that seems to multiply indefinitely once senior year hits.
12. So, you turn to your advisor, with untainted faith in their concern for you and in their infinite bureaucratic influence.
13. In the best-case scenario, your advisor is an angel
who holds your hand and cuts through the red tape for you with their magical,
advisor scissors.
14. But, more likely, you might be referred to another department, like the registrar.
15. Then, you could be referred elsewhere again, perhaps to the financial aid office.
16. You may eventually find yourself in the presence of your department head, desperate and exhausted.
17. The process can be long and daunting.
18. But the important thing to keep in mind is your attitude.
19. Sure, on the inside, you may feel more unstable than the family dynamics in Game of Thrones.
20. And you will, at one point, want nothing more than to lay down in the middle of campus and scream to the heavens for mercy.
21. But on the outside, it’s always best to approach these bureaucratic hurdles with a smile.
22. Because, at the end of the day, your college staff is here to help you.
23. And, after you stumble back to your room after running back and forth around campus, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as feeling the red tape lift from your shoulders.
