Reflectorial: On Stress
Welcome & Welcome Back
A new school year is upon us and whether you are coming into MRU as a fresh face or returning for your second, third or maybe the coveted fourth year, welcome.
It isn’t always easy to return to the grind of school. Maybe you are taking five classes, and also working a part-time job to pay your rent. Maybe you are starting your University career and nervous as hell, or maybe you are finishing up the last few courses of your degree. Whatever the case may be school can be stressful.
It is not always easy to handle this stress, and the pressure from various points in your life probably isn’t helping, but the important thing to remember is to just breathe. Life can get crazy, and things can seem un-doable, but everything will get done, just believe that.
First years, are you struggling to find out where exactly you go on this seemingly gigantic campus? Or figuring out what these GNED courses are all about? Reach out, use your resources and get help.
Second and third years, does the course work seem unbearable? Do you feel like things don’t seem as simple as they were in first year? Just take a second to remember that things are only getting more difficult as you are becoming more educated.
Fourth years and beyond, the real world is only a few months away, and from experience we can say there is just nothing more stressful than knowing in a few months you wont just have a part-time job, but instead, a career. Again, just breathe. Use all of the amazing resources MRU provides us, (check out the career center, perhaps?)
Regardless of what is going on, you can do this!
And as hard as it may seem, there is only one thing to do — push through and get on with it. There was some sage advice I received once, when I was having a stress breakdown and not sure how the mountain of things on my to-do list was going to get finished, and it was simple. “Are you going to leave any of it behind? Is there anything you cannot complete? No. Then just do it, because stressing about it will not get it done any quicker,” (easier said than done, I know.)
Things won’t always be easy, and school can get incredibly overwhelming, but that is why we have peer-support, and tutoring and all the things that make this campus great. Talk to the people in your program, because odds are you aren’t alone in the overwhelming stress, and what better way to concur that than with a group.
Don’t be afraid of what is to come, instead embrace it, and believe that you can, because you definitely can.
If we can do it, anyone can.
Good luck!
– The Reflector
