As the school year begins, those entering a new year of education begin to settle in to the cycle of the next nine months. From quizzes and exams, to projects, to class, to the social life and the balance between sleep and friends, the school year and all its feels will begin to settle in once again. Over the next nine months, there will be ups, there will be downs, and there will be the constant lull of a year of academia. Nights will be spent studying, days spent in class, and weekends spent over-doing everything the week has kept you from. For some of us, this is a comforting time. Structure, schedule and deadlines help us to function in a well-oiled manner. For others, this is a time of great dread. Deadlines mean procrastination, schedules mean eternal tardiness, and structure restricts our free-thinking personalities. While each of us handle the school year and its monotonous time table differently, there are a few feelings that we college students know all too well.
1. Like the feeling of a fresh new outfit on the first day of school...
2. Or the feeling of your sweaty back stuck to a hot chair in the inferno that is the first week of classes that just HAD to start in the peak of summer
3. Or the pit of eternal debt that overtakes you as you slowly hand your credit card to the cashier at the bookstore after spending your entire life savings on three textbooks for a single semester
4. There's the feeling of impending doom as you collect your syllabi and realize the load of work you have undertaken for the next four months.
5. And the feeling of overwhelming sadness as you realize the freedom of summer is gone.
6. There's the overwhelming stress of the procrastination all nighter cycle that overtakes your Sunday night, every four weeks
7. And the feeling of immense joy as you walk into a test entirely unprepared...but manage to pass anyways
8. There's the rush of relief that is a weekend following a week of tests.
9. And the incredibly satisfying feeling of a night spent alone watching Netflix.
10. There's the depression that comes on a Sunday night as you realize another week of school waits just hours away.
11. And the sadness of eating a heaping bowl of sleep for dinner.
12. There's the turmoil of choosing friends of school every night of the week.
13. And the stress that arises in the morning, because you yet again chose friends.
14. There's the groggyness from a day spent on only four hours of sleep.
15. Or the strong desire to do anything but school...
16. There's the immense desire to buy a dog.
17. And the overwhelming sadness as you realize that that dream may never come true as long as you are in college.
18. There's the joy of friends...
19. And the comfort of a community around you.
20. And most of all, there is the satisfaction of completing a semester of something you may have never thought you could do.
Each year of college is a new adventure, full of excitement and turmoil. There are ups, and there are downs, and there are feelings of all extremes. But know that as you enter college, that those feelings are not something you feel alone.
