The cross sectional portrait of a modern day student is best depicted by a grim collage of stress, illness, sleep deprivation, and underachievement. We recognize the negatives, yet continue competing among ourselves to see who presents the grimmest picture. The more stressed, wrought, and weary you present yourself, the more you seem to be achieving.
In modern culture, stress seems increasingly more glamourous. Students wear their sleep deprivation as a badge of honor, an indication that they are working harder than their peers. We consistently compete over who has it worse; we compare how little we slept, how much we have to do, and how little help we get from outside. Today, it’s almost expected that you give up your health for academic achievement. When you sleep, you feel guilty. When you eat lunch, you feel like you’re wasting time.
Students are incredibly afraid of asking for help. Few ask professors for extensions, and even fewer admit that they are struggling to keep up with the societal expectations of near- death stress levels. Students are reluctant to admit that they may need help, for it may outwardly manifest itself as a sign of their weakness or incompetence.
We try our best not to feel incompetent, not to feel like failures undeserving of the place they hold in the world. Yet, it’s hard not to feel like a failure when you’re drowning in this culture of stress. A lot of the time, it feels as though there is no path back to the surface. You are consistently made to feel as though nothing you do is good enough. You feel as though you are not smart enough to be where you are. You feel as though it is impossible to succeed.
The prospects awaiting you after you graduate aren't good either. You hardly have time to apply for full-time jobs. You worry no one will take you. You worry about your likeability. You worry about your future years being crippled with student debt that wasn’t clearly worth accruing.
At work, Americans are among the most overworked and stressed individuals in the world. Americans are conditioned to believe that with enough hard work, they can achieve anything. For many, it is enough to work harder, disregard their health and lives, and hold on to the hope of achieving more in the future. Their stress levels and sleep deprivations are indications of their own hard work, and their stress levels and sleep deprivations are badges of honor that demonstrate their commitment to a botched American Dream.
Hard work is a core American value, but most Americans don’t seem to see a limit to overworking themselves. This mentality starts early. As far back as first grade, students are brought down by the notion of failure. The youngest children are defined by grades, standardized tests, and other assessments that assign their humanity a value with a letter or a number. By college, this mentality spirals into a life defining feature that students can’t escape.
According to bestcolleges.com, 36.4% of college students “reported they experienced some levels of depression in 2013”, and college depression seems to be an epidemic in itself. Then why do we deny our problems?
Stress should not be synonymous with hard work and achievement. Rather, stress is an obstacle. For all of us, it’s time to stop denying the problems we face. It’s time to stop glamorizing our struggles as representations of our hard work. Instead, we must begin to work together and bring each other up to take care of our health and our wellbeing. Thus, we can become more effective, happier, and live our own lives to the fullest.
