Plans fall through. People cancel. Things don't pan out the way we expect them to. This is all part of life, especially in college. People always advise us to prepare, prepare, prepare. However, with some things, it doesn't matter how much time you put into preparing for your desired outcome, the end result might just not be meant to be. This can be one of the most frustrating aspects of college and professional life, and I have experienced it in abundance throughout my time in college. I didn't realize the effect it had on my health, however, until I put into perspective what kind of stress this put my body under.

I came to this realization in one of my sociology classes. We were discussing how inequality in a society leads to poorer health outcomes for the people at the bottom of the hierarchy. One of the mechanisms they considered for why this might be the case, why do people at the bottom seemed to have shorter life expectancy, higher likelihood of early death and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, was that their lives were marked by a lack of control. They didn't always have control over their job security, their lack of home ownership was cause for concern, and much more. By being at a lower income level in a society with a large income difference between the top one percent and the bottom ninety, the lack of control is even higher, which leads to higher levels of stress.

This stress response is the true culprit for the heightened prevalence of disease and poor health. Stress is beneficial to us in short term situations, and it can prove to be a very effective motivator. However, the chronic stress associated with lack of control is what wreaks havoc on our bodies. Cortisol is a hormone that is released in the body in response to stress, and studies have shown that increased exposure to this hormone can affect the body negatively, such as compromising the immune system making us more susceptible to other illnesses.

Not all college students have the same level of stress as some other individuals across the country, but it is worth considering how lack of control and stress in our lives can be detrimental to more than just our mental health. The lack of sleep, the extra shots of caffeine, and the all-nighters all add up as we run this rat race. If we stop and think about the negative effects stress has on our body, we can automatically equip ourselves with a new kind of control that we didn't think we had before. By making more conscious efforts to acknowledge how we are feeling and taking steps to take care of ourselves, we can minimize our risks as well as gain a new perspective on how to combat stress in the future. Life can throw a lot of punches, but it's how we pick ourselves back up from these blows that will truly define who we are.