It is 10:37 p.m. You have been up since 4:30 this morning and you are exhausted, but you still have 30 pages of reading and a paper to write. You try to tackle the reading. However, as the clock ticks, you find yourself less and less able to take in the information. Do you tell yourself you have to keep going until at least midnight, or do you make yourself put the books away for the night?
As a young adult determined to be successful, it is hard to make myself quit for the night. It is, however, one of the most important things I can do for myself. I’ve learned a lot in school; I’ve learned that contrary to popular belief, the angles of a triangle do not necessarily have to add up to 180 degrees and that everything is technically always levitating. The most important thing I have learned, however, is to put mental health and myself first.
For some, this may be a foreign idea. It may not quite make sense for someone to put their GPA at risk when they are paying thousands of dollars to go to school. To an extent, this is true. One should not go to college just to blow off their classes. After all, the purpose of college is to further your learning. However, there is a difference between not doing homework so you can party each night and not doing homework so you can keep yourself a little more sane.
I know this is a hard thing to do, especially for the studious. We want to do well in all of our classes. We want to maintain our 3.9 GPA's, and we do not want our professors to think we do not care about their classes. As much as we may feel the need to pull all-nighters before big exams, I believe we are much better learners when we put our personal needs first.
If you are dead tired, go to sleep for a few hours. It may seem crazy to wake up at 3 a.m. just to do your homework for differential equations, but it really isn't. The brain tends to function and process material much better when it is not exhausted.
If you accidentally sleep through your alarms so that you can finish your homework, it is OK. It may be stressful at the time to be the only student in your class of 18 to not have their homework to turn in, but it really is OK because, in the long run, it doesn't matter.
I am sure you have all heard that "'C's get degrees." Although I believe you should set goals higher than the minimum requirement, it is important to remember that it is OK if you do not always do as well as you hoped. Missing one assignment is not going to flunk you out of school. Likewise, getting a bad grade on a test does not mean you are not good enough. You can still graduate and will still be able to have a successful career. All these scenarios mean is that you needed to give yourself a break, which there is nothing wrong with. After all, if you continue trying to make it through each day on two hours of sleep and 22 hours of classes and studying, it will eventually catch up to you.
Why wait until you crash to realize this? Why not recognize now that keeping yourself healthy is more important than school? After all, how is college supposed to be the best years of your life if all you do is go through each day trying to study while being extremely sleep-deprived?
I am not saying you should blow off homework each night just so you can give yourself a mental break and watch Netflix or sleep, but you should find a balance – a balance that allows you to maintain your grades, while not becoming too stressed.
