It’s your last year of high school, you just got accepted to your dream university (or just your local state university, which you are still extremely happy about), so you start to count down the days until you no longer have to live under your parents roof and can get out of that hometown you have lived practically your whole life. You're more than ready to meet new people and experience fun and exciting new opportunities. Yeah, you are nervous about the new adventures ahead of you, but you have this feeling that you are going to be a great, outgoing student who joins numerous clubs, gets good grades, and still manages to have a great social life. And when you graduate, you’ll have your dream, high-paying salary job. Of course it’s going to be great, it's college; the best four years of your adult life. High school has definitely prepared you for what college professors are about to throw at you, and you are more than capable of being able to live on your own and take care of yourself.
For those of you in the midst of a college career, this is probably all too real and most likely somewhat humorous to you. Many of us had this false belief that college was going to be “the best time of our lives” and that with ease, we would be able to balance all the things expected of us and would end up being a successful, productive member of society once we graduated. But when we enter in this “life-changing experience,” many of us are right out of high school and, in reality, don’t have the slightest clue of what we want to do with our lives and really don’t know anything about ourselves in general. How could we ever find ourselves successful when we are going through such a huge transition?
Our culture has indirectly put a double standard on college careers and lifestyles, creating even more stress and uncertainty to the average college student. These standards that students should “have fun” and “meet friends that we will have for the rest of our life” but also get amazing grades, participate in numerous clubs and activities, get internships, volunteer, get resume experience, and also work a job or two to pay for rent and food. We all have at least one friend that does all this with grace, but let’s get real; not everyone can do all this and remain sane, yet it is expected by parents, universities, and society overall.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that college students are capable of achieving lots of these goals and can balance being social and responsible. But what I find to be concerning and rather frustrating is even though professors and faculty know about the expectations and stress put on our college student population, they continue to make courses extremely time-consuming and difficult to succeed in, or even, in some cases, pass. Even as a senior, I still receive lectures from professors about how college students need more sleep, to eat healthier, drink less caffeine, and be active in order to retain and understand material and overall be a better student. Then that same teacher will assign hours of reading, essays, and a midterm all in one week, and if the student is taking more than one or two courses, the hours spent on schoolwork alone, not including time spent in class and in all the other things the student may be involved in, is astronomical. With that being said, when will a student make time to prepare a healthy, home-cooked meal, get some exercise, get plenty of sleep, and maintain some sort of relationships with other people? It’s nearly impossible, but yet still preached by college personnel.
As a college student myself, I wouldn’t know where to start to change this ingrained expectation and standard created for college students, but it needs to change somehow. The amount of news articles and posts about students committing suicide due to high levels of stress and anxiety should really convince our society that maybe, as whole, we are expecting too much of college students. I’m very lucky to attend a university that has some really great programs set in place to help struggling college students, but I know not all universities have the same luxury. The advice I have for my fellow college students is to know your limits; you are only human and can’t do everything and still take care of yourself. Take time for yourself, even if it just to take a nap a couple times a week or to go to lunch with a friend. You deserve it.
