Why is it that college has become a game of “who has it worse?”
From nightly pizza rolls to all-nighters, the idealism of what college health is will forever be one of the most detrimental parts of college. In school, specifically college, students are expected — almost required — to put their mental and physical health on the back burner.
With the push for more and more on a resume and the increasingly competitive job market, to stay comparable to your peers it seems as if you have to be enrolled full time, keep at least a 3.0 GPA and have at least one job on the side. On top of that, all of our energy is expected to come from ramen noodles and black coffee.
Why do we let that happen?
We go to class and argue about who has had the least amount of sleep, who has had the least amount to eat and who has had the worst exams or homework for the week. My friends and I have had a running gag of the semester of who has gone the longest without getting groceries. For the past few months, I have been working two jobs, having a full course load, maintaining my 4.0 GPA and, when I have the time, keeping myself alive.
There is absolutely no point I should feel like I have to do this in order to feel proud of myself. We shouldn’t feel like it is normal to live off hot pockets and Monster Energy. We shouldn’t feel like we have to pull all-nighters at T. Coop just to be able to finish a paper we should have started a week and a half ago. Specifically for USC, we shouldn’t feel like it’s OK for part of our student body frequent Five Points night after night.
We have to realize that college students need to take better care of themselves.
Not even that, but you need to realize that you need to take better care of yourself. There is little to no good that can come from an average of three hours of sleep per night, and you are the only one that can change that.
Now, I know that some of us are not able to change the current situation we are in. People are putting themselves through college and have to work two jobs just to live — which also shouldn’t be something that is normal, but it is very unlikely I can fix any of that in this short column. But, even then, you deserve to take care of yourself.
I can’t offer any solutions. I would love to sit here and tell you to quit your jobs and care a little bit less about your grades, but it’s so much easier to say that than for anything to actually happen.
The main thing is that what we are doing now is horrible for our health, and we deserve better. There is nothing that should come before our own well being, but we have been tricked into thinking school, jobs and money are more important than actually functioning. I promise you, it’s not.