One of the most developed skills we share as a generation is making sad, serious things into jokes. It is so much easier to laugh at students’ (our) messed-up sleep schedules and mental health than to admit how bad the situation really is.
A common evening for me looks like this: I scroll through Instagram after my phone tells me that I have reached my screen limit for the day. In between 15-second blurbs of chaotic and often unimportant information, I see a post saying, “College is a vicious cycle of staying up late to catch up on homework & taking naps because you stayed up late & then being behind because you just took a nap.” I giggle and send it to my friends. Most respond to my message within an hour.
An average student’s routine includes going to bed somewhere in the wee hours, whether because they were working on assignments or because that was the only part of the day that they could have time for themselves. A four to six-hour ‘sleep’ will be followed by an unpleasant awakening experience no matter how late in the day it comes. Then classes, last-minute due dates, homework, a job—all of that with time for an energy drink, of course.
Not many people talk about the effort it takes to sustain academic and social lives while in university. Many students are familiar with the feeling of guilt when they prioritize hanging out with friends over devoting time to their homework, or when they choose to study over being social. We also don’t talk about the physical exhaustion from the lack of sleep and stress over the grades. Nor do we express the desire to build relationships and connect with cool people around. It’s an endless maze of feeling like you don’t do well enough or aren’t good enough.
The problem is not that we, young people, can’t plan and account for things. We want to live life, to do better, to be better versions of ourselves—but in the end, it all comes down to a deadline for that one assignment you couldn’t get to and your shift that no one picked up for you. So you open another energy drink and tell yourself that one day things will get less intense… and you go on with your life.
To share your first-year experience, email mast@plu.edu.
