College... the word is either dreaded or anticipated. Some people are excited to finally graduate high school, or they're upset that after school is more school.
Either way you look at it, one factor remains the same. Stress. It begins in elementary school when we're constantly asked what we want to do in the future. At that point in time, hardly anyone knows what they truly want to do. Even if they have an idea, it could easily change over time.
Most of us are pressured into attending college because "you won't make it in the real world without a degree". It becomes our only option because most of us don't have a choice.
In college, we start to decide where we want to go to College. Are we going to stay in town? Are we going to a different state or even country? But before you can even decide that, you need to decide what major you're going towards. Will it be something that you're passionate about? Or will it be something you make a lot of money in? Is it competitive? Is it something that will be around in 30 years or so?
We're asked to decide our future before we've even had time to discover what we like, so we might be going into something we won't like in the future because there wasn't enough time to figure ourselves out.
When it's finally time to go, we're suddenly thrown into this wildlife of college kids partying, skipping class, working while also going to school (because college kids are poor AF), and trying to find a social life underneath it all. There is constant homework, late nights, group projects, exams, essays... all the while most are working.
The reason why a lot of students have to work while going to school? To pay off student loans that will stick with us for years and years to come. Within the first year of college, debt is already piling up because of textbooks and classes.
The hardest part of it all, is parents or adults not truly understanding the weight college kids are constantly under. There has been research after research on how kids these days are more depressed or anxiety-ridden than the past generations. A lot of it comes down to competition in the job field and how hard kids have to work to get a good job in this environment.
A lot of it comes down to social media as well. Past generations didn't have to deal with seeing everyone's success online, or the idea that likes equal popularity and success. A lot of the stress is simply because we want to fit in or show off how we're doing in life. There is stress coming from everywhere, so give us a break. If we have free time, let us go out and enjoy what little we can.
