College is a massive, if not the biggest, life change an individual may experience in his/her life. Oftentimes, with life changes come a lot of stress and a range of feelings and emotions. What I would like to do in this blog is highlight some of the struggles college students may go through and provide potential solutions for them.
-Stress/being overwhelmed/anxiety because of work or workload:
With regards to stress management and anxiety, whether it’s general or related to schoolwork, there is a lot that can be done, if one were to go into depth. However, some simple things to engage in are exercise, mediation, breathing exercises, more relaxation time, more engagement in self-care, better sleep schedules, and more socialization. All these things would generally help one feel better and happier, experiencing less feelings of stress and anxiety.
One thing to note is stress and anxiety related directly to schoolwork. With regards to this, using the previously mentioned techniques may not be best solution, as it may be ignoring the main problem. In such situations where schoolwork/workload seems to be the problem, a good place to start would be with scheduling classes appropriately, according to one’s ability. This would entail making sure that your workload is not more than you can handle, such that it would negatively affect your mental health.
Additionally, regardless of whether you have a massive workload, good time management is always a great skill to have. Having such a skill would be helpful to anyone. The main way this would help would in allowing students to be on top of their work and always one step ahead of the game, so that there is room for unforeseen circumstances, time to yourself to relax or do what you enjoy, as well as less stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.
-Loneliness
With regards to loneliness, this is something that college students may experience very commonly, especially it involves if moving away from family. However, besides that, college is an entirely different environment to high school, and finding new friends or keeping in touch with old friends may be a challenge. For college students finding themselves in this kind of situation, it would be helpful to begin with staying positive and enjoying the new experience for what it is. From there, I would advise making a concerted effort to stay in touch with old friends. It may be hard to, but it’s worth it. Try to keep a group chat and check of on each other every once in a while, and perhaps chat about college experiences or whatever else is going on in life. Make it a point to go out with them occasionally as well, and this will help you feel as though you are still connected with them and up to date and haven’t lost touch.
With regards to making new friends, I would advise trying to be outgoing and friendly. This way, you will most likely attract others and find it easier to make friends. Chances are that the majority of the other people in college are feeling exactly the same way you are and are waiting for someone to approach them. Therefore, instead of waiting for people to approach you, be that outgoing and friendly person to initiate the conversation in the order to create the friendships you want. Also, joining clubs and organizations is a great way to connect with others and socialize. Most colleges will have an abundance of clubs and organizations for students to join. You can then find ones that suit your likes and interests so you can connect with people who have similar likes and interests to yourself. Another good approach is to use group chats and study groups. A lot of times classes may create group chats where everyone can communicate and ask questions about assignments and work. From there you can use that to form study groups and help friends with assignments or receive help if you’re the one who needs the help. In this way, you can create relationships through bonding through schoolwork.
-Trying to meet expectations of friends and family
One thing to remember when trying to meet expectations of others you will not be able to please everybody. What’s most important is that you yourself are happy with what you are doing. After yourself, the people who matter are those who actually care about you and those you would take advice from. If you wouldn’t take advice from someone, it shouldn’t matter what they think about the direction you chose. Those that are important would be parents, close family, and close friends. Of course, everybody has their own idea of what they think is best to study, but people who really care about you and want you to be happy will for the most part, be happy if they see that you are.
-Trying to maintain relationships and a social life
This comes back to having good time management. If you practice good time management, you should be able to have time for yourself, your assignments, socializing, and other things. Being able to prioritize and stay on top of school work, or even a step-ahead, should enable you to do other things with your time without falling behind in any area of your life.
Another thing to note is that socializing falls into taking care of yourself/ your mental health, as well as relaxing, and stress-management. It’s therefore important to note that socializing is not at all wasting time. Having a good social life help in many areas of college life and life in general, and it’s good to try to maintain it at a good level. Whenever you take time out for yourself or time to relax or de-stress, spending time with friends would be a great way to accomplish that and take care of those things. On the other hand, one should make sure it is well balanced with other aspects, and it doesn’t take more time than it should, hence negatively affecting other areas.