Since I have entered my second semester of my freshman year of college, I have begun to notice a vast difference in my workload. I got lucky my first semester to have classes that weren’t too heavy on homework, out-of-class activities and studying. However, since changing my major and entering into second semester, the bar has been RAISED.

I have hours of homework every night and I’ve had to work much harder to get the same grades that I got with ease in my first semester. One of my few breaks that I allow myself in my homework periodically is a Twitter break. Twitter has a growing culture of college students accurately discussing what it means to be a college student in an incredibly relatable way.

However, what I’m starting to notice through Twitter and through discussion with other college students is that everyone seems to be competing to see who has the least free time, who has the most hours of homework, and whose social life has depleted the most. This is seriously ridiculous. I’m going to say this once and once only: college is NOT a competition to see who is the most stressed out.

College is definitely much harder than high school and will definitely be more stressful as a result. I will be the last one to tell you that college isn’t stressful. But when I’m telling a friend casually that I’m stressed about a big project that’s coming up and they proceed to say “well, you think that’s bad? Listen to THIS!” and basically inform me of the entire syllabus for every class they’ve ever taken, I think we’ve gotten a little derailed in what the point was.

I’m stressed, you’re stressed, we’re all stressed here, but let’s not try and undermine one another’s stress by pointing out how much MORE stressed we are than the other person. That’s stressful in and of itself. We could all use a little less stress in our day so let’s get rid of this first and focus on what college is really all about.

The primary point of college is to learn a heck of a lot about something that you actually want to learn about or do with your life. If you’re fortunate enough to get a college education, we’re all paying buckets of money to spend our time devoted to the study of something we’re actually interested in for once.

High school is somewhat of a bucket that catches everything and spills a little bit of it onto you. College is you choosing what bucket you want to dip into and swimming in it. We should all be excited that we get to learn more about what we want to do, not trying to vindictively compare workloads.

This is a whole different discussion by itself, but as a theatre major, a lot of times people think that all I do is talk about what makes a good production of "Chicago" or read plays. The truth is, I do do this. However, what you may not know is that I might have to read 3-4 plays in a week on top of putting hours in the scene shop or costume shop on top of rehearsal for an upcoming production. Everyone is busy. Everyone has other commitments. We’re all riding the struggle bus together. Let’s not undermine one another’s struggles with our own, but instead appreciate that we’re all going through it together.

Among the many others, there is one more benefit that comes with a college experience and that’s living your best life. This is likely the first time that you have almost complete independence in your life and you get to learn about who you are as a person and how you operate. This is an incredibly valuable lesson that most people spend a large sum of their life trying to figure out. In addition, you meet some pretty great people and have the opportunity to have fun in ways that are unique to your college experience.

You can go to football games and root on the team for the school that you go to, you can go to the club and dance the night away with your friends, you can take an ice skating class and learn some interesting tricks. It’s your college experience and instead of competing with others over arbitrary things, go out and live your life. You only get this experience once. Make the most of it while you have it.