Let’s be real and completely honest here. College is undeniably tough. And as blunt of a statement it is, you are often navigating it all alone. Some of us have little to no support system, no one coming to swoop in and save the day. Even the friends you make have their own lives, you have no one to fully rely on but yourself. The work can definitely be overwhelming, and as the semester rolls on, sleep becomes a luxury. The jobs, internships, leadership roles, and organization responsibilities fill your Google Calendar to the brim. The summer internship search takes up half of your time and consumes all of your mind. Then there’s the financial strain – wondering if you can afford your next meal or stretch out your groceries another week, or even afford your rent, knowing that it’s unlikely anyone will help cover it if you can’t. And sure, we vent to our friends about it, but you can feel that underlying itch that no one fully understands carrying the weight of it all with a less than desirable mental health too, to be moving forward and doing your responsibilities for your future when you have metal chains at your feet tying you down.Â
On those days when your brain can’t distinguish which worry pulls you into its depths more—a simple menial task or a life-changing decision—I find the cliché “take it one step at a time” holds so much truth. Because all together, it can amount to so much that you don’t know where to begin, and in the time you spent worrying about it, more responsibilities piled up. As someone who thinks about the future, I often worry so much that I forget to enjoy the mess as well. And yes, it can be difficult when there’s so much of it, but once you work through it and get to the other side, looking back becomes much easier.
If I was speaking to someone also dealing with mental health in college, here is what I would say:
- You aren’t stuck in this state forever, and you aren’t the same person you perceived yourself to be yesterday. In my case, I’ve learned to love coming back from a full day of college and seeing traces of the girl I was this morning. I’m nine hours older, and I’ve changed in ways I probably won’t notice until four months from now. I exist outside my presence—my lips imprinted on mugs, makeup brushes worn from all the hues I use, the jewelry I hesitated to bring along on today’s journey. You are present in places you are not, and you leave and gain parts of yourself wherever you go.
- Take the time to sit and coexist with the world around you. Sit on a random bench with a pretty view, buy your favorite drink, put in your AirPods, and allow yourself to feel all those repressed and questionable thoughts—the ones you know you can’t articulate to anyone but yourself.
- It’s okay. It’s okay if you have a bad day, if you have more bad days than good. It’s okay if you feel alone, whether by yourself or around others. It’s okay when life goes your way, and it’s okay when it doesn’t. It’s okay to grieve loved ones and to grieve the person you once were.
- Reward yourself for even the smallest things. You’ve tried so incredibly hard to be where you are now—only you live your life, in your head, and only you know how tumultuous the journey has been. You are an incredible achievement.
- Get help if you need it! There is absolutely no shame in reaching out for support, whatever that means for you—whether it’s to a friend, professor, university mental health services, getting prescribed medication, or seeing a therapist or psychiatrist.
UT’s affordable Counseling and Mental Health Center: https://healthyhorns.utexas.edu/cmhc/
- It’s not a straight line. There are days when you might feel like you’re finally getting a handle on things, only to have a tough day or a couple of weeks come out of nowhere, and that can be frustrating. It’s easy to feel like you’re regressing or that you should be “better” by now. But mental health isn’t like a class where you make steady progress toward an end goal. Healing doesn’t follow a perfect timeline. It’s more like waves—some days they’re calm, and some days they’re rough, but both kinds of days are part of the same ocean. You’re still moving forward, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Keep moving forward, even if it seems like it wouldn’t make a difference—your future is always waiting for you!