There are plenty of great things about college. It’s the best time in your life to travel and seize unique opportunities. There are tons of resources available for just about anything. In college, you’ll make life-long friends, memories and maybe even meet your life-long partner. You can engage in tons of organizations and take interesting classes. Your experiences will be unforgettable.
College is a time to thrive and explore who you are. It’s the first time in life you experience independence, but you don’t have to do the adult thing full time just yet. However, there are a lot of double standards and challenges you’ll face in college that make these four (or more) years particularly tumultuous and memorable.
Here are five things every college student goes through during the ups and downs of their higher education.
1. Sleep deprivation
It becomes the norm, perhaps even the expectation, that you sacrifice a night’s sleep to study for an exam or write a paper. It’s like, if you’re not sleeping, then you’re succeeding — because you can always sleep on the weekends… or when you’re dead. All you need is that next cup of coffee or another Adderall to get you through the day, and then the week, and then the rest of the semester.
2. FOMO is forever real
FOMO (fear of missing out) is realer than you think — and not just in a social sense. I’ve experienced FOMO in my professional pursuits more than I have in wishing I were at that sick party on Saturday. In college, you start to feel like you’re always working against a ticking clock. You’re always looking for that next resume builder, another internship, a better job — because it’s not enough to just take classes anymore — you have to be a motivated, aspiring professional at the same time.
3. Stressing about stress
College doesn’t really stop being stressful. And when it does, even for a moment, all you can do is wonder what you’re forgetting to stress about. You end up thriving on stress. If you’re not stressed, you’re clearly not working hard enough.
4. Forgetting how/when to eat
Keeping yourself fed and watered properly doesn’t seem that difficult. Why does college make you forget how to do that? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wandered Walmart and had to call my mom and ask what food I eat. I can’t tell you how many days I’ve been so busy that by 7 p.m. I realize that all I’ve consumed that day was coffee and an old, smushed granola bar from the bottom of my purse.
5. Balancing act
College teaches you to be a trapeze artist of sorts, but not a super successful one. Please show me the college student that has figured out how to balance classes, work, campus involvement, social life, homework, working out and sufficient sleep. This ideal human being does not exist because there is simply not enough time in a day. I’ve heard at least a thousand times as a “helpful study tip” that for every hour you spend in class, you should spend three hours studying/doing homework. I am always speechless and shaking my head in frustration when I hear this.
Please, please tell me how this semester I could have successfully spent 16 hours per week in class, 15 hours at work, been the president of two clubs, have two online internships, be a student ambassador and still study 48 hours per week. Oh, but still get eight hours of sleep every night and go to the gym for an hour each day all while eating nutritious meals. Twenty-four hours in a day will never be enough time for me to get everything done, but hey, that’s college, and that’s why we never sleep.
At the end of the day, no matter how swamped I am, no matter how behind on work I am, even if I just failed an exam — I wouldn’t trade my college experience for anything (except maybe world travel, which is probably cheaper than college anyway…hmm).
Despite always being broke, hungry and confused, I will continue to work hard and seize every opportunity I can before my four years are up. There’s something inexplicably invigorating about the overall college experience that makes you love it, even when you’re crying under pressure and you hate everything about it.
Whatever challenges you face in college, learn to conquer them and keep working hard. Supposedly it all pays off in the end, but you have to keep moving forward to find out.
