When will our lives have a chance to begin

I was told that college would be some of the happiest years of my life when I was a kid. My parents and grandparents told me stories about all the fun things they had while getting their degrees. I thought that it would be a time where I had free time to explore the hobbies that I’ve always wanted to explore and go on crazy adventures that I would be able to tell my children about. 

It hasn’t been like that at all. 

Instead of picking up new hobbies, I am barely able to keep up with the interests I already had. Instead of going on adventures I am spending my free time doing the pile of work that I have for class. 

I know I’m not the only one who is feeling like this. This week alone I have heard the phrase ‘it has been a week and it’s only Tuesday’ muttered around campus too many times to count. We are all working for the weekend at this point and even then we don’t get a break.  

It’s not just happening to CSC students, college students all across America are crying out over the workload that colleges are expecting us to complete each week. All over America students are measuring their success by how stressed and burned out we are. We compare how much work we have to do like it’s a competition. And because of this we are exhausted, stressed and burned out, which has only caused our mental health to decrease at a rapid rate.  

According to the Jed Foundation, cases of depression in college students has doubled in the last 15 years. 82% of students are dealing with anxiety and 63% are suffering from depression. Even students that aren’t clinically diagnosed with anxiety and depression will experience mental illness during their college experience.  

Now I know what some people might say. ‘Well college isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to prepare you for the real world’ I know that. I spent all of high school mentally preparing for the difficulties of college. My teachers warned me about how many papers I would have to write and how many tests I would have to study for. But I didn’t think my college education would come at the expense of my mental well-being. 

I’m one of the lucky ones too. All of my classes this past year have been in-person and I have been able to return to some sense of normalcy. I get to see my friends and seek a little bit of solace from them whenever I get stressed out. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have classes be completely online for an entire year. The amount of self-teaching and isolation they are going through is even worse for their mental health.  The only connection they have to their friends is through a screen.

I can’t help but wonder what we are being prepared for. Is this what the real world is supposed to be like? Is our mental health supposed to suffer so that we can be productive and successful? If that’s what it takes then I’m not sure I want it. I don’t want to be dreading each day because of all the work I have to do. I want to enjoy my time as a free willed adult. Maybe it is time that we as a society and as an institution reevaluate our values and rethink how much work is too much.