These past few weeks have reminded me why stress is often labeled as a hindrance to our lives. Logically, I can acknowledge stress sometimes serves its purpose in our lives. I remember procrastinating until the night before an exam and the burst of energy I would get when I realized I had to study or fail.

Sometimes it feels like we do our best work under pressure. But sometimes stress can become so much that it feels like we are suffocating under the weight of the world. It can paralyze us to such a point that nothing gets done except the incessant worrying over everything that needs to be done soon, or even now.

As I come closer and closer to the end of my college career, I find I have this irrational fear of the real world. As someone who came straight to college from high school, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually lived in the real world. Although I no longer depend on my parents at all, I’ve been depending on financial aid and school jobs for so long I seem to have forgotten how to survive without them. Looking at the world of jobs and possible internships, I find even just the task of creating a good resume seriously daunting. Why would anyone want me for a job over all the other possible candidates?

Along with these fears, the end of the semester is looming over me, just like everyone else. I’m realizing that in those classes where I’ve been allowing my reading to get behind, I’m nowhere near the prepared state I had planned to be in for my exams. Suddenly all these papers and special presentations that teachers love to dump on you at the end of a semester, often giving the assignment instructions only a few weeks before it’s due if you’re lucky, are crushing me.

How can I possibly concentrate on my important German presentation with a classics paper that has yet to be started and double the Latin information being shoved into my head every week? I’m sure everyone on campus has a similar situation they are dealing with.

In addition to this school-related stress, we can add any relationship problems, disagreements with friends, financial issues — not to mention the debt we can all see in our future and any family problems. Overall, whether it’s the age, my situation specifically or just everybody’s (maybe some hide it), it amounts to a whole lot of stress piling on one person.

So what can we do to ease our minds? Well, there are many options, though you might have to make time for them out of your busy lives. As students, we can take advantage of the short-term individual counseling through UHS and check into whether the group counseling option works for our particular brands of stress.

A good outlet for stress is exercise, whether it be through organized classes, using the NAT, SERF, or other organizations or simply going running on you own. Then you can rely on relaxation techniques most of us are familiar with: listening to music, taking a hot, soothing bath, treating yourself to your favorite foods or relaxing by reading a book or watching television.

Finally, if your stress is more extreme than most, talk to someone. Choose someone you really trust who cares to listen and just pour out all your troubles. They may not be able to solve your problems, but just sharing them with someone else will make you feel so much better.

Amanda Vogelzang ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in classical humanities.