College students are constantly under a surprising amount of scrutiny — and not just by our professors. Parents, peers and society as a general whole turn their gaze to college students with both a level or expectancy as well as judgment. We're placed on a pedestal as the future of our country, yet at the same time are the recipients of sideways glances and overarching stereotyping. And yet people wonder why so many college students are negative and depressed.

Really?

You don't know why?

Bless your heart — let me tell you why. Forty-four percent of college students report symptoms of depression, and most of that is directly due to stress. And yeah, I get it, with school comes stress, but it's also so much more than that.

Not only do we leave home for the first time, but we are thrown into a world in which we must make life changing decisions. College students must know what they want to do with the next four to six years of their lives before we know what we'll even have for dinner that night. Sure, we have the opportunity to try out classes of different subject areas, but that doesn't give any indication of a job, much less a career that will be actively pursued for the next 40-plus years of our lives.

On top of that are loans that we will be paying for an even longer span of time. Here we are, signing a document that will determine our credit score and monthly spending budget for the next decade or more. Usually more. $10,000 is a vast sum of money that can really change the course of one's life, and here we are requesting it from a bank or company in one fell swoop. Most of that change we won't even get to see if tuition is hungry enough to swallow it all up at once.

Aside from classes and finances is a social scene that we truly find important. Although movies may depict a different story, fraternities and sororities and clubs and groups are important and can even be a source of stress relief in our lives. We have romances that both succeed and fail, friendships that endure bumps and triumphs and study groups with partners that truly test our patience as well as question our hope in humanity.

And when college students finally do get some reprieve from the stresses of the university in the form of a backyard party, lake day or the blessing that is spring break, we're judged. Look at those crazy fools drinking their lives away. He can't even walk straight. The music is entirely too loud. Have you seen those clothes she's wearing?

Let me explain. He drank because he desperately wants a break from his racing thoughts around the midterms he has to return to after spring break. The music is loud because most dorms enforce a 24-hour quiet floor that you may or may not have chosen to reside in, and she's wearing those short shorts and that crop top to actually feel youthful, like a 20-year-old who can take a moment to simply live and not worry.

I'm not trying to make an appeal to the general attitude of all college students, nor am I intending to complain freely simply because I have an outlet here. In all honesty, I hope that perhaps I can open (and in some cases, reopen) the eyes of adults who need to remember that youth does not mean bliss and ease.

We're trying — really hard, actually. So the next time you see a student hauling a backpack weighing about that of a newborn elephant or another partying it up in South Padre in March, give them a second thought. We can all agree that life really isn't that easy, and we're learning to still take a moment to enjoy the little things, like gas money and Top Ramen.