With the new university term fast approaching, the media turns towards college life – a particularly comforting or daunting fact for students entering their first year. Newspapers and blogs dedicate entire pages to Freshers’ Week, reassuring students of what to expect and reminding us of the amazing and unique opportunities that university provides.
We are told that these are to be some of the best years of our lives, so we have enjoy them while we can. However, this lead up to university creates a peculiar pressure. University is a lot of fun, but, and perhaps slightly naively, I think it would be even more fun without the immense pressure placed on people to enjoy it.
Following graduation from secondary school, an undergraduate experience is marketed as our last chance at responsibility-free happiness. Yet, we are inundated with media voices telling us just how bad we are at being young people. We’re too dependent on our parents and others, for too long. We’re not taking advantage of all of the unique opportunities available to us, we could be doing more, seeing more, working harder and moaning less.
At the end of your university degree, not only will you receive a diploma, but an identity manically crafted from the various opportunities and connections made in college
Social media only works to heighten this anxiety, serving as a constant reminder of all the things that your peers are doing, all the people they’re meeting and events they’re attending. At the end of your university degree, not only will you receive a diploma, but an identity manically crafted from the various opportunities and connections made in college. It is a lot. And while I have no idea how this fares in comparison to life post-university, it seems to me that telling people when is to be the best time of their lives creates a giant gap between expectation and reality.
This is why the question “how are you enjoying university?” can often be a tough one to answer. Not only is it overwhelming, but it is also loaded. You and your family are working hard to afford you this opportunity, so if you’re not entirely enjoying or getting what is considered the full college experience, should you feel guilty or embarrassed? And even if you are thoroughly enjoying your college experience, a small concern is present: am I enjoying it enough?
While it is certainly a privilege to attend university and students are often guilty of taking this for granted at certain points, I think it’s possible to be grateful without detracting from the experience by completely engaging with all the pressures presented. If we weren’t endlessly harangued by the constant expectations, the constant reminders of how a university experience should be or how we measure up to the university experiences of others, we would be more easily able to enjoy our own.
Everyone’s experience should and will be slightly different. Try not to be too hard on yourself if your university experience is not what others said it would be
Everyone’s experience should and will be slightly different. Try not to be too hard on yourself if your university experience is not what others said it would be. Stamp out the voice that continuously asks if you’re having the best possible time, if you’re taking advantage of every available opportunity, at any given moment. It’s exhausting. And it’s also an impossible task. Even those who appear to be seizing many opportunities are probably admonishing themselves for not doing enough.
I have no idea whether my university years are to be the best of my life. I’ll definitely remember them as great years, but who am I to know if they are ever to be the best? I’m not sure that it should even matter. Even if they are, I wish they weren’t presented in that way. It’s a lot of pressure, and frankly, leads to more disappointment than satisfaction.
Positivity is crucial when embarking on any new stage of your life. With regards to university, I’m trying to expect little, but appreciate lots.
