If there is one thing I have learned so far during college, it is that things often do not go as planned, and when they don't, it feels disastrous. Especially when college demands that we coordinate every minute of our day in the most efficient manner so that we can accomplish every single thing that needs to be done (because there's always something). Obviously, it's natural to become stressed out when things don't go our way. I mean, it's never fun to get a bad grade on a test or to have to restart your failed chemistry experiment halfway through during your Friday afternoon lab (trust me, I've been there). Although sometimes even the smallest of calamities make you feel as if the world is targeting your misery, it is easy to get caught up in the stress and strain of our everyday lives. It's important to remember that, in the grand scheme of things, the small nuisances of our everyday lives will eventually seem unimportant. However challenging it may be to keep yourself from getting stressed or upset, keeping a few simple things in mind might help you look at your struggles with a different perspective.
Find a way to laugh.
When things go wrong, your natural reaction is frustration or irritation, but trying to find a way to laugh about the situation at hand will always, always make you feel at least a little better than if you let yourself become upset. Whether you drop your coffee all over the floor or fall down the stairs in front of a bunch of people, making a joke of it will give it a positive spin, and hopefully you'll forget how tragic it was in the first place.
Make it an adventure.
I can mentally list so many situations, even in the past week or two, where things have not gone as planned, but ended up turning into adventures along the way. When my building lost hot water for days, my roommate and I made the trek to a neighboring building in the freezing air of nighttime, only to find the water there was cold, too. While it was fairly upsetting to take yet another cold shower, we ended up turning our struggle into an adventure, and in the end, it didn't seem so bad.
Keep things in perspective.
It is very easy to exaggerate the extent of our problems without realizing it. One important thing to remember is to keep your problems in perspective, not necessarily in a global scope, but in a personal scope. While yes, something like terrible Wi-Fi connection is a constant pain (@villanova), don't let these annoyances cause you to lose your cool and prevent you from differentiating what is actually a problem and what is just a nuisance.
Mind over matter.
When things hit rock bottom (and one day, they will), always remember to remain positive and hopeful, even though you're probably feeling at your worst. Do things that make you happy, like surrounding yourself with people and things that you enjoy to keep your mind off of whatever's got you down. Most importantly, your mindset is the major factor in how you respond to problems, so keeping a positive outlook, no matter how difficult, will help you get through the hard times just a little easier.
