College is no joke.
I remember my first semester, I thought I could sail through the same way that I did in high school. I could study here and there, do my homework, somewhat pay attention in class, and pull a great GPA out of thin air. I was so wrong. Not only did I have to work extremely hard to get a semi-average GPA, I had to deal with excessive amounts of stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, anger, depression, and an overall defeated sense of being.
Academics in college destroys you- and I don't use that term lightly. I admit that I would sometimes complain about high school working being a little unbearable, but college work takes unbearable to the extreme. Not only are you learning material that you had no idea even existed, you actually have to understand what's going on, how it works, how it's applied, how it's used, how it isn't used, etc. Because college isn't some institution where the grades are only meant to get you into another institution. College is it. College is where you learn the things that you will be doing for the rest of your life.
Now, getting a decent GPA requires a lot of work, time, and dedication. But getting a GPA that you are thoroughly proud of takes blood, sweat, and tears. And I mean a lot of tears. There will be nights where you don't sleep and you're surviving off of nothing but coffee. There will be days where you are eating and breathing biology or economics or calculus or art history or all four at the same time. There will be times when you think that you are literally stuck in neutral, going nowhere in life, and everything that you're doing in that moment is useless. And more than likely, all three of these situations will occur in the same day.
Not only do you struggle with the amount of work that has to be done every day for every class, but if you're the average college student you'll be apart of other organizations, clubs, or sports. So you also have to take into account time management and a tightly packed schedule. You have to start asking yourself: What's more important? Is there any way I can study on the way to that soccer game? Is taking a nap really the best idea right now? Which study review session do I go to before my meeting with the student volunteer club? There are so many things to take into account on your average day that it just adds to the stress that your course load is already pouring on you.
And then there's the prestigious social life that every college student wants to have- hangout with your friends all weekend, sleep in until noon every day, and live off of Netflix during the day and parties at night. But that isn't the ideal way to make it through college. You can't spend every weekend slacking off or karma is going to come back at you full swing when finals begin to approach. Some weekends require you staying in and studying for exams or doing homework that's due first thing Monday morning, and that's okay. You won't be any less cool because you didn't go out one Saturday night. Your grades and success is far more important.
Sadly, I wish that I could tell you that it goes away, but it doesn't. It progressively worsens over the semester, and when you hit the last month, odds are that you will barely be considered a functioning human being. But that's okay. It's all apart of the cycle of college. We're meant to break ourselves over school work and put all that we have into something because that's what we're here for. We're here to learn the thing that we're passionate about, even if it takes staying up 5 consecutive days and skipping dinner 3 nights that week to understand it all. It's not the most ideal situation or the thing that your heart may desire most, but it's what you've got to do.
So abuse those library hours, make study groups with people in your classes, go to office hours and befriend your professors, and work your butt off. Your social life may suffer and you may realize that you can't join every club the college has to offer, but that's okay. Because at the end of the day, what you put into college is what you get out of it. Everyone wants to be successful, but you gotta be willing to work for it.
