A great musician once said that "these words are knives and often leave scars" and describes a fear of falling apart. While we'll see these quotes on tattoos and posts on Tumblr, this is an unfortunate reality for too many people, especially those young adults in college. According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA), Anxiety and depression are the two biggest mental health concerns affecting college students (41.6% for anxiety and 35.8% for depression) http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/06/college-student... . These numbers are unfortunately growing and it breaks my heart to know that my fellow students are growing through mental problems like these. However, I feel like it is important to address the ones who don't experience these things, and specifically, the ones who tell us to "get over it".

I wrote in my previous article about tips to help college students succeed in school, and while I was humorous in some of my tips, but the message behind them is very serious. I know so many students who have told me that they feel like they're drowning in school work. And yes, there are cases where this is because of procrastination on the students part, however, the students cannot be solely at blame. For many students, this is their first time away from home, and they don't always know how to handle the responsibility of being on their own. I'm truly thankful that I have a great support network of family members that had high expectations for me at a young age and allowed for me to mature and develop at a healthy rate. Not every person has this kind of upbringing, and it's important for us to remember that we cannot judge someone else's life or their struggles based off of our own experiences. We need to try and be understanding to one another so we can work to help one another.

Let's talk about school for a moment. Many people do not understand the stresses that college students are under on a daily basis. For many freshmen who are only taking gen eds or electives, they are exposed to a whole new form of school that they are not used to. They are taken from the 25-35 person classroom setting in high school with teachers that they have easy access to and are put in 300+ lecture hall with a professor who obviously isn't going to be able to keep up with that many students. That's no fault of the teacher nor the universities, however, it is a complete culture shock for several students and some do not adjust as well as others.

I've talked about nameless people in general situations, but now I'm going to bring up someone who you all have gotten to know up to this point, myself. College for me was an entirely new world, the idea of independence and relying on myself was enticing at first, but soon became a weight on my back. I began to resent myself for not doing as well as other people around me, and I was internalizing all this personal resentment and sadness to the point of it being unhealthy. I was shutting out my family back home, and they couldn't do anything for me because I wasn't ready to help myself. I'll never forget that day in December when I officially lost it. To set the scene, It was the day before finals, I was sick all weekend, and I had just gotten dumped (spectacular timing on her part). I was sitting in my room, listening to Panic! At The Disco and trying to keep myself together when my mom called. She could immediately hear how shaky my voice, and all she asked me was "are you ok?", and those three words were all it took for me to fall apart. I heard my mothers heart break on the phone as I spent the better part of an hour unloading a semester's worth of self-hatred on her. All she could do was cry on the phone with me and let me know that everything was going to be okay, and I will always love her for that.

I'm telling you all these things because they are important, we need to talk about these things instead of turning away uncomfortably. We need to remind ourselves and each other that we matter and no matter what, nothing can take that from us. To the person who is struggling in silence and can't express themselves, know that I love you and you are not alone! My favorte poet Neil Hilborn once said that the future is a blue sky and a full tank of gas. So to all my guys, gals, and non-binary pals, get in that car and drive.