Every college student faces stress pretty much every week. It can be hard to manage that stress when it is there all the time.
After leaving to study abroad, I realized dealing with stress is a little bit harder when you are away from everything you know and are used to. But over here in Europe, there are a lot of new pressures and different types of stress I do not always feel at home.
One of the main stressors I think we students have to deal with is budgeting our money without being able to have a job or work study. When I came over here, I did not factor in the fact that I would have to pay to get on the tube all the time. It adds up quickly and it can be frustrating at times. I would say that the biggest issue with money is the fact that we need it all the time, have to limit spending and at the same time, we are trying to get the most out of this experience. That right there sums it up and that is why money is such a stressor.
This may not be that obvious, but I find that there is sometimes social stress. It is hard because I did not come here with my best friends. I came here with people I knew in passing hoping that they would become good friends. But it is hard because they cannot replace your family or your main support system back home. Sorry to all my friends here, but I think they would agree with me. And sometimes it is hard not having your family or your best friends to help you combat certain obstacles. We are all sort of trapped here and have each other. Of course we can make new friends, but in the end we will return home with the people we came here with. There is nothing we can do about it because we decided to come here. And if there are certain aspects or people we do not like in our surroundings, we really cannot do anything about it until we get home.
And of course, there is the stress that comes with schoolwork. Our classes through our school back home are compressed into three weeks. So that is an entire course mushed into three weeks. That is a lot of stress and a lot of work. It is difficult to find time to relax when we have that much work. But I will say that I have not been that productive in a long time.
Soon we will return home and adjust to our regular schedules without such an emphasis on these stressors. Of course money can be stressful at home and there might always be stress from school. It is just the fact that these stressors have changed since coming to Europe.
