Penn State Students’ Relationship with Academic Stress
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — To relax means to rest the mind and the body, becoming calm and peaceful.
While in school, students can be constantly looking for ways to relax. According to charts in the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) 2021 Annual Report, student self-reported data summarized during the 2020–2021 academic year showed a substantial increase from the prior year of academic stress.
Penn State students work out, others play video games for hours on end, some even use their brain more as a way to relax.
Zachary Robinson, a senior majoring in finance, finds zen while working out. He likes to pop in his earbuds, blast his favorite workout playlist and go to town after a long day. Robinson’s body and mind are his temple.
“I can go as hard as I can and get out all the pent-up feelings and aggression,” he said. “Basically two birds one stone.”
For Thomas Doss, a freshman, relaxing is a lot less vigorous. Listening to music is his preferred way to relax.
“There’s really nothing better than just closing my eyes and vibing,” he said.
Teagen Lewis, a sophomore majoring in marketing, also said he likes to relax with music. He listens to a wide variety of music, ranging from heavy metal to some pop music. Lewis enjoys playing video games the most out of his hobbies, even starting our virtual interview over Zoom playing League of Legends.
The most stressful part of college for Lewis is meeting deadlines, mostly due to procrastination. He’ll play video games to avoid doing schoolwork causing more stress from pushing off assignments which then makes him want to play more games.
“I get caught up in it and I fall behind when I could’ve spent that time finishing it and doing my hobbies later,” he said.
Lewis also has a job that he works just under 40 hours a week at that he said he barely balances with school.
Aubrie Urban, a senior in graphic design, said that the one semester of her college career she had a job she flunked the entire semester and now only works in the summer.
For Urban, time management is the most stressful part of college. Being on campus “from six in the morning to ten at night pretty much consistently in classes which makes it really hard to decompress and also get the work that needed to be done, done,” she said.
Urban said she believes the education system lacks the proper structure to allow students to complete work on time.
“[The work] keeps piling on with no regard to if you can or cannot do it,” she said.
To freshman Anthony Kizer, a mechanical engineering major, the only thing piling up are the expectations of a college student.
He never had a job in high school because his parents wanted him to focus on education and being expected to suddenly balance his first job, along with his first time taking college classes, has been stressful.
Kizer seeks out fictional worlds in books and manga “to escape the realities of life,” he said.
“Coming straight out of high school and going to college,” he said. “It’s not what you thought it would be and it’s not as easy as you thought it would be.”
