College and Stress

On average, eight out of ten college students state that they have experienced stressed at some point in the past three months, according to a survey in 2008. This is an increase by 20% from a survey that was taken five years ago. It’s been almost ten years since that survey was taken, and you can bet a dollar that the amount a stress a college student experiences has increased since the 2008 survey. Not only does stress cause damage emotional and mental health, stress can take a physical toll on someone as well.

One of the main factors of stress for a student in school is grades. Today, we base our education on a pass or fail system and not on a learning system. To some point, I can understand, but it’s time for students to start learning what interests them. In college, we take classes that interest us, but we still put a heavy amount of our success on our grades.

Right now, it’s finals week, which means it’s time to bunker down and do some hard-core studying. I have all A’s as of now, and my stress is through the roof because I want to keep my A’s and hopefully get my first 4.0 semester in college. As an English major, most of my finals are papers, but for some classes, I have a final paper and a final exam. This just doubles my stress tremendously.

And since this publication is for a grade in one of my classes, what better way to help relieve stress than to write about whatever I want and whatever comes to my mind. I’ve been going through a lot lately, in my personal and academic life, so it’s nice to just sit down and write the stress away. Overall, this year hasn’t gone too bad, but I’m glad I have writing as an outlet if I ever need it.