How to remain sane while studying

 

 

The word college often conjures thoughts of partying, drinking, staying up late and having fun. For some, that may be true, but for the majority there are other realities.

Unfortunately, open house days neglect to mention the stress, nail biting, anger and sadness included in the journey of higher education.

After a long day of studying and contemplating dropping out approximately 37 times, the majority of Windsor-Essex students get to go home to their families. This sounds great: coming home after a hard day to your loving family, the smell of cooking dinner as you walk through the door, television on, the fireplace spreading warmth around the house. But we do not live in a fairy tale, and most students are not greeted, they are bombarded. Bombarded with questions, work, stress and more stress from their parents.

Boundaries need to be set.

Questions like ‘when are you going to get a job’ and ‘when are you going to stop being so lazy’ are heard everyday by St. Clair Human Resources student, Elora Beaton. She says they do not seem to understand, she is just too stressed.

“When I get stressed, I tend to shut down and stop trying to succeed for obvious reasons, but it’s not something I can specifically control,” said Beaton.

Beaton said she worries too much about exams, and results. Although this behaviour is not abnormal, too much worry can lead to problems. But where there is a problem, there is always a solution, and these solutions may not be as complex as you think.

Don Crowder is the counselor for the downtown campus at St Clair College. He says a lot of the students he helps usually get way too ahead of themselves, which is never fun, and almost always ends in tears.

“Understand that really what we’re doing is not trying to cope or control anything,” said Crowder. “Lots of students get ahead of themselves and that’s when the added stress turns into a level of anxiety and perhaps even conflict with those closest to them, particularly their parents because they’re not measuring up.”

He said when you find you are in this sort of situation, ask yourself, is it working so far? The answer to that question is always no.

“The alternative to that would be to bring what’s in front of us down to a reasonable, manageable, operational kind of peace,” said Crowder.

In order to survive your time at college or any sort of higher education you have to remain positive and think, if you’ve made it this far, you can definitely keep going.

“Just focus on what’s in front of you,” said Crowder. “One of the things I would suggest doesn’t happen is that we become isolationists and not discuss whatever’s happening. First of all, trust yourself. The second thing is to take some time to actually get a visual concept of what your future looks like.”

You never know what could be waiting around the corner. College is a never-ending window of opportunities. If you manage yourself and your time properly anything is possible. And if you are tough enough to stick it out till the end, the world is yours.