When it comes to college, I think that most of us can agree that it can be a stressful time. When we are not worrying about finding an internship, we are worried about making sure that homework is getting done and that we are passing our classes. When we are not worrying about those two, we are probably spending time at our jobs to pay for tuition and housing. It is honestly a cycle of stress that does not end until after graduation (sorry, meant to say after loans are paid off).

Now there is no problem with school giving students SOME stress. After all, we enroll ourselves in universities because we want to get a job in a field we really enjoy. Wanting to do assignments well can give that stress because you want to succeed in the field that will provide your future career. In wanting to succeed in classes critical to one's major, we can feel more pressured to do ace those midterms and finals.

Here's where too much stress and a want to do get everything right can be bad : when it keeps you from having a normal sleep pattern, you constantly worry about EVERYTHING and you just dread classes. When you have a lot on your plate and do not manage time wisely, it can lead to a later weekly bed time. If you are studying a lot and then just stress about what will be on an exam, it is going to keep you up at night.

This can be bad, but the stress of an all-nighter can be even worse. Thought having one big cram session the night before the exam will help you remember everything? Well, that is not the case. If anything, going into an exam on no sleep at all can prevent you from remembering any information at all. Overwhelming yourself before an exam is never a good thing.

As someone who gets easily stressed out by by my college life, I can tell you that it has given me my fair share of all-nighters and days of minimal sleep. I want to do well, but I get so worried about not doing well that it just brings on a whole lot of unnecessary stress and keeps me from getting as much sleep as I should. While I still did well in my classes, my low amounts of sleep still gave me more stress since I could not find the time for it and failed to manage myself.

Stress can also bring on irritability for some people. When I am stressing over something, I will try to not show it. However, when other things happen that only add to the current amount of stress that I have, I tend to snap and be a bit of grouch (which is the nicest word to describe me like this) and I often give some bad attitude to friends who really do not deserve it. In having too much stress, it makes me more of a grouch.

After realizing I constantly stressed myself out too much, I decided to combat it by learning to stop worrying about everything all at once. Because I do that to myself so often, I feel constantly overwhelmed and start to panic. Instead of doing everything at once, I started making just small goals I needed to hit everyday. Ten page paper due? Do two pages every day this week. Need a break time? I will take 20-30 minutes to myself between subjects.

At this point in life, we can have a lot of stress put on us. Sure, some can give us the motivation we need to get work done, but more often than not, it can really burn us out. That is why we need to realize that we cannot do everything at once. Just take things as they come and make small goals that you complete each day. In doing that, we can take off a lot of unnecessary stress in our lives.