Exams, Pressure, and Trying to Keep My Passion Alive

Photo by Charles DeLoye on Unsplash

College is honestly wild. Like nobody warned me how heavy it gets until I was neck deep in exams, pressure, and self doubt. This past semester nearly ate me alive.

I had to hit pause on writing here on Medium, which hurt because writing is something I’m crazy passionate about. But survival mode kicked in. I had to focus fully on passing my exams. Every day was this endless cycle of notes, stress, and the voice in my head telling me what if you fail? what if you’re not good enough?

And it wasn’t just me putting pressure on myself. My mom… yeah, her expectations sit heavy on me too. I get it, she wants the best for me, but sometimes it feels like one bad grade could crush everything. That kind of pressure can eat at you.

Now I’m in my second level, and honestly, it’s this mix of excitement and stress. I’m happy I made it here, but there’s also this constant voice whispering that I’m still not doing enough. College isn’t easy. Some days it feels like a whole war inside your head, fighting fear, fighting tiredness, fighting to believe in yourself.

The hardest part was stepping away from Medium. I used to spend three hours a day writing, even when school was hard, because it was my way of breathing. Writing is how I stay sane. But during exams? I had to give it up for a while. That…