The semester is quickly coming to a close, and with that comes the rush of unfinished syllabus work. Professors all come to a sudden realization, all timed perfectly within the same week of each other, that they are far behind in the plans they had set for the semester. So the only obvious solution -- and by obvious I mean cruel -- is to bury us in huge assignments until we feel like we can no longer breathe. There’s a dim light at the end of the tunnel that is the end of this semester, but all of this work is making it harder to see than it already had been. So what now?

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and unfortunately for us high achieving college students, good grades come at a high price. It seems like there isn’t enough time in the day to get done what needs to be accomplished, so the night becomes our best friend and our beds our worst enemies. Coffee also becomes a familiar face while the library is our new home away from home, not our dorms. Often times, food seems to get in the way of studying so that too goes out the window to be replaced with granola bars and energy drinks. So with all that you’ve sacrificed in order to do well in school, you can’t help but wonder, is the price to pay for good grades a little too high?

It’s come to my attention this past week that the work assigned by college courses has become a valid reason for not only college students but also college staff as to why something should be sacrificed. People almost always start out a conversation by asking how you are and for us college students, the answer tends to lean towards being tired or stressed. Naturally, you tend to want to justify why you feel that way, so you begin to explain; you have a lot of work that needs to get done and you stayed up late trying to get a small portion of it out of the way. Why does this never surprise anyone? “Join the club.” “Get used to it.” “That’s college.”

That’s college? The human body wasn’t built for the type of stress that we’re putting on it but why does “That’s college” make all of it OK? Why is all of this suddenly acceptable - normal - for individuals enrolled in college to do? Why does no one seem to care about the unhealthy habits that we’re beginning to get used to? Most importantly, why are we letting it happen?

Even professors are letting it happen. College staff acknowledges that these types of unhealthy habits happen on a day-to-day basis and can fully acknowledge that it’s bad for you. So why instead of trying to assist in ending the cycle do they too insist “that’s college” and explain that sometimes you just have to make sacrifices in order to achieve greatness.

People claim that college is what’s causing the unhealthy habits to form, when in reality the only thing they can blame is themselves for allowing it to take hold of them. That’s why you hear so many stories about people having nervous breakdowns and committing suicide. College students and professors make unhealthy things the norm and then go back on their word when something drastic happens to the student who was just following in everyone’s footsteps.

Why is sleep deprivation such a common excusable thing in college, but in the real world, it’s a sign of insomnia? Why is skipping meals in college okay, but skipping meals in everyday life a sign of an eating disorder? I don’t think people understand that the fact that these habits are becoming what we as college students identify as being normal things should actually be of extreme concern. Instead of blaming college, I feel that we all need to take a step back and start blaming ourselves. We’re in charge of our own lives, and if the so-called “price to pay” for good grades is getting to be too high, who says we have to pay?