Stress. It's a word that everyone in the world is familiar with, and it's a feeling all college students struggle to cope with throughout their tenure at a university. While it is true special circumstances — such as finals — compound the stress, testing times are not the only times that stress appears. Thus, it becomes important to learn how to manage these stresses, and stress in general, as early as possible.

I won't lie to you and say that stress doesn't happen to everyone. I won't lie and say stress doesn't ever chase you down in life. It seems like, in my own case, life has a way of getting more potentially stressful the further you go. Most of life's stresses come hand-in-hand with added responsibilities, and responsibilities are continually added on. This is part of why college proves to feel so stressful to students. Many of the responsibilities it applies to people are the first time a student has to handle these things. For example, college students have to learn how to cook or scrounge to feed themselves. At home, meals are usually prepared for them without ever having to wonder where the meal is actually going to come from or if it is going to be ready at all. The same can be said for laundry, cleaning, and all the other "chores" you used to have to do at home. (Yes, I am getting at a point here.)

Notice that, up until this point, all your other stuff to get done has nothing to do with classes or any organizations you might want to get involved with on campus. It becomes paramount to learn how to manage all of the new responsibilities, along with classes and whatnot, so you don't get overwhelmed. Take it from a guy who decided to almost overload himself over the course of the last year: you want to learn what you can and can't handle early on. Stress happens enough in life without your help. Heed my advice:

Learn to manage your time.

You are going to hear this advice from literally everyone you come across. Downtime is great, and you may have a great deal of downtime your first year of college. That being said, you should use this downtime for more than just lounging around on Netflix. Use your spare seconds to plan out a schedule, tidy up a little, or, dare I say it, study a little. If you have a set schedule laid out in front of you, you have a better plan than most of your peers. This will keep you on track with all of the things you need to accomplish. Cleaning in small amounts frequently will cut down on the last-minute massive cleans you'll have to do. Studying periodically prevents you from having to cram at the last minute and stress out for literally every single test you ever take.

Learn how to study.

It's important enough to mention again, especially in case you skimmed past the time management section. You may think you know how to study from high school, but if you breezed through high school like I did and hardly ever studied, you need to learn how to handle your stuff. Cramming for tests does occasionally work, but it's more productive and much more successful to study a little at a time in the days leading up to a test. You will be less stressed than trying to cram three chapters worth of material into a single night, and you'll be much more likely to retain the information you need to know. As far as the style of studying you decide to use, what works best for you might be the same as for someone else. In my own case, and for all you prospective engineering students out there, practicing problems will get you much further along than anything else you could do. Find the style that works best for you and use it.

Understand how much time your classes take up before you jump into five different student orgs.

Joining student organizations can be one of the biggest boosts of your college career. Not only will you forge life-long connections there, but you have great to potential to add several different resume building opportunities to your repertoire. However, none of this is truly helpful if you get so overwhelmed with everything that you have to curl up into a ball and cry yourself to sleep from lack of sleep and being split in so many directions. Your new chores in the residence hall and your class load will keep you fairly busy, and it will continue to keep you busier and busier as you take higher level classes. This limits the amount of time you can actually spend on anything organizational-related. Find your requirements and limits before you go off and start joining everything under the sun.

Don't lose yourself.

I know it's tempting to lose sight of who you think you are as you enter college, and I know you are trying to forge out the parts of your identity you like best. That does not mean you should take part in so many things that you stretch yourself in about fifty different directions until you can't remain yourself. In that same instance, don't be afraid to step out and try new things to add on to your identity. There's nothing wrong with trying something you've never even considered being a part of before, but don't try so many things at once that you break yourself in the process.

College is supposed to a fun and extremely meaningful portion of your life. You are meant to take on many new tasks and learn many new things to build you into a better "you." Just don't kill yourself in the process, because there is such a thing as 'too much of a good thing.' Good luck!