This semester marked my official turn from a go-with-the-flow junior to a stressed-out-24/7 senior. People always laugh when they hear that a college student could be so stressed out that they get stressed out over their stress. Take parents, for example, God bless them, but they went to college in the days when college was actually fun (or at least that's how the movies make it out to be). They don't really quite get it when we call them to tell them that we made only a 85 on a British Literature test that we were super sure we would ace because we stayed up all night studying each period and comma used by Lord Byron.
Of course, we don't know the stresses of paying a mortgage or being someone's boss like most "adults" do, but we are up to our ears in the stress of just thinking about our lives in those positions. And the professors, don't even get me started on the professors. Well, actually I'll just address them as well. We are supposed to read two twenty page essays, work fifty math problems, and submit our own version of a Cinderella story all on this particular date at this particular time and it's complete and utter sh--I mean stress. It's complete and utter stress. The best part about it is their spiel on syllabus day about how they know we have other classes and they'll try to keep the workload light... haha.
We're supposed to be looking for internships and applying for jobs and keeping up good grades all while keeping up a social life and a family life and working however many hours at that restaurant that never lets us eat the leftover breadsticks because it cuts into their costs.
HOW?! How are we supposed to manage it all? We're told constantly that we are the future of our country but in all honesty, we probably took more than our prescribed dosage of Adderall to get us through our midterms.
All in all: parents, friends, professors, and concerned universities, please understand that students have a limit just like you all do. We want to get the adequate number of hours of sleep and we want to go out on a Saturday to hear that band play a Lynard Skynard cover and we want to make good grades and eventually a lot of money, but just bare with us. And possibly put yourselves in our shoes every once in a while.
