Growing up thinking about college, I imagined having the time of my life while learning about what I love. I always figured college was going to be difficult, but I didn’t really hear about how strenuous the workload would be. People always just told me to make the best of my four years because I’ll never get them back. So far, most of my time at college has been spent either in front of a tiny computer screen or at a desk with multiple cups of coffee.

There is always something we, as college students, should be doing to benefit our education. Even after every assignment is finished and all the reading has been completed, there is still pressure to apply for internships and join student clubs.

This is especially true for students here at the University of Oregon and other quarter system schools. It seems as though immediately after we get our first few assignments of the term over with, it is already time for midterms. Midterms then seem to last, on and off, for three good weeks only to lead us into another phase of studying for finals. Getting a degree should not mean that we have to put everything else non-school related aside.

Heavy workloads that are placed on college students can cause many to forget about passions that do not directly correlate with their major. Even when attending fun events on the weekends, I still find it hard to shake the thought of the assignments I have due the next week. When you are a full time college student, there is no turning it off.

Although we work our asses off trying to graduate, we often do not get the recognition we deserve.  Many of our parents and grandparents think we are here at school just to party it up, even after we try to show them how hard we are working term after term.

When our parents were going to college, it was seen as something extra that people wanted in their lives. It was a place for those who wanted to give themselves that edge in the workforce, nowadays society has made it seem like we have to go to college. Although for how much it seems like we are supposed to go to college, our country has not made it a priority to really prepare young adults for what is to come.

Looking back a few years to when we were seniors in high school, were we really ready for college? Most of us were going to go regardless of if we wanted to or not. We have had this idea in our heads that we had to go to college from a young age, all the teachers knew and all the parents knew, so it is strange that many students are not prepared for the college workload upon graduating high school.

College students today are looking to graduate in four years while having the best times of their lives, but many young adults do not get so lucky. In trying to fulfill our own ambitions and make our parents proud by getting the best grades possible, we can get stuck. Many students experience anxiety, depression and hopelessness throughout their years at college. For some, the workload can be overwhelming to the point where they feel the need to take a term off and give their brain a rest.

While studying for school, trying to work off student debt and pumping ourselves full of Adderall, students can forget that it is important to schedule some time to de-stress. Whether it’s going on a run, playing some video games or pulling out your old painting supplies, everybody needs a little time to wind down and get their minds off of how much work they have.