College Struggles — Anxiety

Every college student at one time or another has experienced anxiety. Between the stress of exams and studying and hoping you have enough change to get some ramen for dinner, anxiety is a huge factor in college life. I plan to show anxiety by taking photos of college students studying and different aspects of anxiety throughout our lives. There are plenty of different things that make a college student anxious. All of the long nights of studying or freaking out over a test or project. Every single college student has experienced the feeling of anxiety while being there.

There are so many aspects of college that create that anxious feeling. A lot of times kids are leaving their parent’s home for the first time which can be a really scary feeling. It is a tough adjustment going from living with your family, to be being all on your own hours away from home. You’re under so much pressure to make this new life work. You’re supposed to adjust to living on your own, make all new friends, and do well in all of your classes. It is really difficult to have to start over and create a whole new life for yourself, which can cause huge levels of anxiety for a lot of students.

After going off to college, a lot of kids decide to rush to be in a fraternity or a sorority. The entire rush process is so stressful and can cause high anxiety levels. While rushing, every person is trying their very best to fit in and seem likable in hopes to get picked to join the sorority or fraternity that they liked. It is hard because you’re told to just be yourself, but to also make people like you at the same time. For a lot of people the pressure and waiting to know whether you’ve been chosen or not can make them very anxious.

It is hard to go from high school level work straight into college work because kids aren’t really prepared for the difference in work level. As a freshman, you’re so worried about adjusting to this new life, while also realizing that you need to keep up a high GPA. Not only do you have to decide on a major, but what you want to do for the rest of your life. Having that pressure that you need to do well in order to move onto grad school in hopes to get the career you’ve chosen for yourself is a lot of weight on anybody’s shoulders. Before college, all kids had to worry about was getting to high school on time and hanging out with their friends on the weekend. Now they’re being thrown into a whole new world and are told it is time to be adults and that can make anyone severely anxious.

This photo uses composition of the girl sitting right in the middle of the photo because it shows how she is all by herself. The blurriness and darker tones help you understand the emotion of this photo, it brings a feeling of despair as she sits and thinks.

This photo is taken in the perspective of the person. It is supposed to make you feel like you are the one holding the cigarette and and picking at your nails. I took this from this position to make the audience feel like they’re in her shoes.

I used juxtaposition in this photo to show the difference in work load vs. the calendar. This oblique angle is supposed to show the audience how much work college students have compared to their free time.

This photo uses vector lines through the arm and hair of the person writing the essay. The essay is clear while everything else in the photo is blurry helping to point your eyes straight to the essay the person is trying to write.

This photo uses figures because her facial expression gives off a somber feeling. There is also tension in this photo leaving suspense to make the audience wonder what happened to make her feel this way.

This photo uses vector lines to convey its message. The line of her hair outlines her cheek which leads your eyes to the tear rolling down it. This photo was taken very close up to make the audience feel like they are in her position. The eye and tear are pretty much all the audience can see because I wanted to make sure that is what they were focused on.

This photo uses vector lines because the arms point to the sorority letters. The composition of these girls sitting right next to each other shows how they are friends while in different sororities.

This photo was taken from the perspective of the person shaking the other persons hand. The vector lines lead your eyes from the arms down to the handshake being taken place. This photo is supposed to be the friends that are being made while trying to settle in.

This photo was also taken in the perspective of the person holding the money to make the audience feel like they are in his or her shoes. It has a black and white tone to give a somber feeling because college students are always broke.