My mom just congratulated me for having my first meltdown of the year in late September, and I was even a little bit excited for myself. I was like, huh, I have gotten almost a month and a half in and I am just now getting stressed enough to cry about it. Good for me!
Granted, last year at this time, I was a mess of a first-year with a twitchy eyelid because I refused to go to sleep before 5 a.m. But now, I am only a sophomore. I haven’t even gotten to the hardest part of college yet, but I’m still letting stress bring me to tears.
Let’s consider this my official call to action, not only to myself, but to all college students. Let’s start saving our meltdowns for the real world. Not in a condescending way — I understand more than most that emotions are valid, even if they’re stress tears. However, I should probably not be as proud of myself as I am for having my first mental breakdown before October.
This may be ironic coming from the former twitchy-eyed 18-year-old. And there’s no need for you to look any further than my photo to notice permanent under-eye bags. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll probably look 50 when I’m 25. I agree. It is ironic, and I am definitely losing sleep tonight because of homework, as well as tomorrow night, and probably the night after that.
Either way, when my mom sent me a text that said, “Yesterday was the first meltdown of the semester, you’re doing great,” I realized how many more meltdowns I have left to face. This doesn’t mean I’ll stop giving myself reasons to be stressed, bite off more than I can chew at the beginning of every semester, and try to do everything, ever. That is the Trinity way, after all. It just means that I’m going to try and handle it with more poise and grace now so then when I’m older with real world problems and what not, I’ll be able to really give my mom an earful.
We are coming up on the sixth week of school, midterms are coming up, and I know a lot of us are really going through it. But if stress were a currency, I’d want to pinch my pennies, try to get through schooling without using it all up, and then save the meltdowns for the good stuff that’s to come in the future.
Not to mention that this “six-week slump” is hard on us all, professors and students alike. We’re all a little on edge; it’s true. To students, I want to let you know that I know where you’re coming from, especially because of the fact that I generally haven’t been known to handle stress all too well, or at least tear-free. To professors, I’m sorry; I don’t know what to tell you, I’m barely an adult.
My mom’s text was a wake-up call, in that next semester, I don’t want to be congratulated for making it five weeks without a real breakdown (even though that’s actually really impressive for me). Maybe I’ll make it to six, even seven. I’m going to try to make it a point not to spend all my time here stressed, as I know I’ll have plenty of time for that later.
If you are stressed, there are so many resources available at Trinity to help you. Counseling services, academic success services and career services, just to name a few. There are also many opportunities for group meditation and exercise. If you need help it is very easy to seek it out at Trinity, so I urge all students to take advantage of the resources we have here.
