College is hard, and it is so incredibly stressful. This semester, I was slammed with an extreme course load. I’ve had hours upon hours of homework every day, which has been exhausting. I’ve taken up residence in the library, leaving only for classes, the occasional meal and sleep.
A few weeks ago, I was slammed with a day where I ended up with more than six hours worth of psych homework, a full lab report for biology and back to back meetings for my sorority. I broke down. I called my friend at home, sobbing. I figured her advice would be to just deal with it and keep working hard, I’ll get there, but instead, she surprised me. She told me to take a break and take care of myself. After talking through some things, I realized I’d gone the entire day without anything to eat and had been working for five consecutive hours without a break. This might not seem like much, but when you’re running on very few hours of sleep, I can promise it adds up. So, I took her advice, and I went to lunch with some friends. When I came back to focusing on my work, I realized I was in a much more positive mindset and was breezing through the report. All it took was a moment for me to relax.
Too often in college, we push ourselves to a point where we can no longer function. We become so stressed about our work that, ironically, we’re unable to do it. It’s so important to realize when you’ve hit this point. The best thing you can do is exactly what my friend told me to do: Take care of yourself. Let things go for a little while, whether that’s taking a break to watch an episode of your favorite show on Netflix, meeting some friends for a cup of coffee or going to bed a few hours early. It’s always worth it.
The next time you’re overwhelmed about your upcoming projects or the big exam you have, remember first and foremost, you should be taking care of yourself. Eat every meal, get enough sleep and get enough time to yourself. You’ll be more productive and the work will seem less daunting if you do. Your health and sanity should be your number one priority, and school should be your second. Take care of yourself.
