Life is hard. College is hard. I know professors understand this, but sometimes, they might just forget that they were students at some point too.

Let me start by saying, We appreciate all you do for us. We appreciate that you love learning and teaching and taking time out of your busy schedules in order to really understand your students. We appreciate the lessons you teach us, and the opportunities you present our way, but as you know, life is hard, and these seemingly universal thoughts professors have, can make classes more stressful then they need to be, or even than you intended.

1. Office hours.

Do not get me wrong, students appreciate that you carve out extra time for us, but when your office is only open every other Thursday for 2 hours when the sun sets on the east, it is very difficult for us students to get the help we require in order to be successful in the class. Yes, we get that you have lives, but we have lives too and our lives involve passing your class, so maybe reconsider office hours? Thank you.

2. Mental Health Days.

College is hard okay. College and clubs and jobs are hard to balance. Throw a once a week existential crisis into the mix, and we're nearly struggling to stay alive. Please understand that we need mental health days. It is okay to need documentation for sickness, and family emergencies, but mental health is hard to document. Please trust us that if we are in your class, we are probably interested in succeeding. However, we need mental health days in order to prevent ourselves from eating off our own hand, that we are given those "free passes." We already have to make up the work for the classes we miss, so marking us absent and having it jeopardize our entire grade in the class, is a little excessive.

3. Please do not get off topic.

I'll admit, it was cute when a teacher in high school went off topic during class because we could just act like we were listening and then the bell would ring for lunch. But in college we actually have to know/understand the information, so when you trail off and talk about your wife or your dog or whatever, it really throws us students off guard. We do not raise our hands and tell you about our weekend, unwarranted, so we would appreciate the same courtesy. That way we can learn the information and go on with our lives.

4. Showing up late.

We all have busy lives, but when professors stroll in 20 minutes late with a cup of coffee in hand, us students instantly lose a little respect for you. If we're here on time, ready to learn with pen in hand, we expect the same courtesy from our professors. It all just goes back to the golden rule I guess, if you do not want your students to show up late, please do not show up late yourself.

5. Last but not least, WE DO CARE.

I cannot stress this enough. If you're one of those professors that say, "I know you do not want to be here, I do not want to be here either." The truth is, WE DO WANT TO BE THERE. This is college, we are paying a ton of money in order to live out our dreams of becoming an actor or accountant or teacher.. etc... and believe us when we say, we have accepted that we need to be taking this class. Yeah, it might not be our first option and we would rather be at the mall or whatever. But we know we have to take your class in order to succeed, therefore we are happy to be there. When you express your disinterest in the class, in attempt to be relatable to your students, it honestly makes us more uninterested in the class. Maybe next time try saying, "I'll do my part if you do yours."