As college students, we are caught in one of the busiest seasons of our lives.
With only two hands, we hold the demands of our classes, our jobs, the organizations we are involved in and our friends and family — most of us on an empty stomach and less than five hours of sleep.
We are sleep deprived, hungry and live in a perpetual state of trying to stretch our time – trying to fit all our demands into a mere twenty-four hours. It gets pretty exhausting. Not because of just one assignment or one club meeting or one shift at work, but rather, the compilation of it all.
We take one burden upon the other on our backs and because we are human, we are bound to reach a breaking point.
Although it is inevitable, there are steps you can take to make sure it does not have a hold of you for too long, especially not long enough for you to consider dropping out of college or worse.
The breaking point is called burnout, and we all seem to meet it sometime throughout our four years of university, most of us in the very first semester we get here and every one after that.
According to the American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology, burnout is “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes toward oneself and others.”
According to a 2023 survey conducted by early career platform Handshake, four out of five college seniors have experienced burnout during their undergraduate experience. They have been marked by chronic exhaustion and lack of motivation.
According to the same survey, 29% reported experiencing burnout frequently during their undergraduate career. About 51% of seniors who reported being burnt out sometimes and 16% said they felt that way rarely.
The best way to avoid burnout is to avoid picking up a lot of responsibilities.
As college students, it is normal to want to dip our toes in every RSO pool we can. After all, at the end of our college experience, most of us want to walk away saying that we did everything we wanted to do, experienced everything we wanted to experience and became who we dreamed of being before we came.
The truth is you cannot do it all and you do not need to.
When you have too much on your plate it is extremely difficult to actually enjoy what you are doing. Your days are busy and instead of enjoying moments, you find yourself rushing them by, eager to reach a place of rest.
Remember that it is OK to say no — whether it be a job, a club or a sorority or fraternity — and it is also acceptable to let something go.
We can also dig ourselves out of burnout by realizing that balance is unattainable.
Yes. That perfect place people always talk about, the one where you manage to hit the perfect spot between handling all your to-dos is nearly impossible — nothing more than something we strive for while we are here. Some people may indeed find this place and learn to rest in it.
However, most of us do not and that is OK. We cannot focus on everything all the time.
Whenever you do reach burnout, it is important to reach out to people who can help guide you through it. We have a habit of locking ourselves in our rooms and throwing away the key when we reach this point, but isolating ourselves from anyone and everyone who could help us navigate burnout will always have an adverse effect.
We are meant to live within a community, to bear each other’s burdens and hold each other’s hands and feet up when we feel ourselves slipping. If and when you do reach your breaking point, be sure to use your best resource first — the people around you.