Hey, friend.
I know it’s been hard but I want you to know that you’re not alone. You’re not the only one dreading class and feeling lost during it. You’re not the only one who just wants to curl up in a ball in your bed and eat all the candy the nearby Rite-Aid sells. You’re not the only one who has experienced a meltdown in the middle of a test.
It seems that when you “burn out”, you lose motivation to do anything, even attend fun football games on the weekend and go out with friends. You spend a lot of time laying down and sleeping. It sounds fun to do nothing but sleep but if you’re the kind of person with 800 responsibilities like most college students, it is truly awful.
So over the semester I’ve learned a lot of ways to deal with the stress and the feeling of “burning out”. You can only put off your responsibilities for a small amount of time before they come back to you and everything gets worse, so just learn to take care of it all at the onset. Recognize when YOU begin to feel burnt out and take measures to stop it before it gets worse.
9. Take it one thing at a time. On days where you have 4 early morning classes, afternoon volunteering, a night class, chapter meeting, and a test the next day…you probably will hate your life. But instead of constantly worrying how crappy volunteering will be, or how long chapter meeting will be, do one thing at a time and do your best in it. It’s difficult to do but just separate your responsibilities in your head and calm down.
8. Take a break if you need it. For example, don’t study for 3 hours straight. Instead, take a 5 minute break every 20-25 minutes. Don’t volunteer to do everything for your club or Greek organization. Sub yourself out, ya know? Life’s a game but you do get tired (this will include a lot of cheesy sayings) and it’s okay.
7. Remember you are young and you have a lot of time to do stuff. My professor half-laughed at me when I explained how stressed I was, saying, “you’re only a junior, don’t burn out! You have 3 semesters ahead of you and the rest of your life”.
