The Child Within You

As a college student, I see caring for myself as a privilege rather than something necessary and vital. I often tell myself that I will start eating healthy when I have the time and energy these require. Poor mental and physical health among college students has become so normalized in our society that we often joke about having ramen noodles for dinner for the fifth night in a row and laugh it off. Similarly, I closely listen to my peers talk about getting a few hours to no sleep every night, which I also do, and it’s seen as nothing out of the ordinary.  Many adults see these and other unhealthy behaviors as the standard way of living for college students and genuinely believe this is perfectly normal when it really isn’t. Another incorrect belief is that these habits are not so bad for our physical health, since most of us are young enough to get away with any damage that could possibly be caused by unhealthy lifestyles. The belief that college students are supposed to neglect their physical and mental health because we don’t have any time is embedded in our society and as a result, it’s also embedded in most of us.

 

In order to solve many of these problems, we resort to advice from our dear friend Google. Most of these articles imply we have plenty of free time and that we should use it to exercise, talk to friends, eat healthily, and see a therapist all at once. This would make great advice if articles that we find online only told us how to unlock the superpower that time management is or perhaps if they included that doing even one of these instead of all of them at once would be okay too. ( What I’m actually saying is just throw these articles away and read advice from Thrive instead). However, we do not try one of these and slowly build our way up, but instead, we frequently try to achieve the impossible. Every month I set new goals to myself that incorporates exercise, a good amount of social interaction, a mental health check-up, a limit on the amount of ramen noodle cups per week. As the weeks pass and I restart my goals every Monday, I find myself slacking every time. These goals may seem simple for some, but for others, they’re unattainable and leave a bad taste of failure in our mouths.

 

Lately, I’ve been thinking of myself as a child I must protect and take care of, without demanding much of her and instead, taking measures to keep her alive, awake, and understood. I’m starting to see the act of caring for myself as something I must do, rather than a privilege I only get to experience sometimes. Equally, I’ve been trying to become “the best version myself” by taking steps to succeed rather than diving in and thinking I will be that person all of a sudden. Not neglecting your needs and demanding the impossible from yourself by itself is an act of self-preservation and one that could make a huge difference. 

 

Some of the things I’ve been doing in order to make this change revolve around taking a break when I need it, saying “no” when I need it, and spending at least one day of the week with someone that I care about. Overworking yourself might always seem like the best way to go about passing your classes, but taking breaks before you get to the point when it gets too much is the key. I am always overscheduling and not taking into account the fact that I need time for myself, so I say yes to every event that comes my way. I’ve been practicing saying “no” to things without feeling bad about it and reassuring myself that it’s okay to say no sometimes, and the people that care about me will understand. This is another way to know your limits and every college student should practice the art of saying no. Furthermore, even if I have a packed week, I leave time to see a friend for at least a few hours. This helps me take my mind off school and regain some energy for the rest of my day or week. 

 

Life as a college student feels as though there is not a middle ground; you either have to neglect your physical and mental health entirely in order to survive or forget to know your limits, set too many unattainable goals for yourself, and end up blaming yourself for not living up to these godly standards. Both of these options may end up introducing themselves in our lives as self-destruction, which is why we should always turn to the opposite. Self-preservation is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a natural or instinctive tendency to act so as to preserve one’s own existence.” 1 Self-preservation is the middle ground and it’s the core of surviving as a college student. Self-preservation is knowing what is unhealthy and taking your needs as well as your limits into consideration when setting monthly, weekly and daily goals for yourself.