Sticky Note Your Stress Away
By Claudia Bradley
As I write this article, staring at my wall that is covered in a rainbow of neon colored Post-it notes of reminders ranging from "Don't forget to go to X professor's office hours" to "Eat. Sleep. Breathe. Go to they gym." Every time I complete a task I rip off another sticky note and hurl it into the recycling bin.
Stress is universal to the human condition. It not only surrounds us, but we internalize it.
Of course stress differs and evolves across particular situations and stages of our life. What worries us as college students is drastically different than what will worry us as parents or entrepreneurs 10 to 20 years from now. No amount of neon colored Post-its will ever change that.
I realize that being in this particular environment dictates the type of stress we feel. We are all contained within the "Santa Clara bubble" and share similar experiences. Stress is a negative emotional strain, but it also brings us together as a community.
No matter how many times I remind myself that college is full of challenges and I think I have things under control there's always another unexpected obstacle that comes along and throws me for a loop. It took speaking openly with others in our community to remind myself that we are all here with the goal to succeed and are not exempt from stress.
Alberto Ortega, a sophomore biochemistry major and community facilitator, acknowledges that most of his stress stems from academics, but, "(that stress) is both good and bad. It shows the importance of a task, but also it will take you away from the bigger picture" if you focus on it too much.
He shared that, as a sophomore, most of his classes apply to his potential career and poor performance in class can produce underlying fear that it will lead to poor performance in a career.
In order to remove himself from his demanding academic schedule and responsibilities as a CF, Alberto immerses himself in episodes of his favorite TV shows such as "Dexter" for an hour each week if he can.
Amber Magaña, a senior marketing major and community facilitator, who is already interviewing for jobs in the "real world" next year admits that it's hard "watching peers, especially accounting majors already have job offers for after they graduate." However, Magaña takes it in stride revealing that "it makes me work harder and I'm really competitive about everything." The Santa Clara lifestyle is very competitive and hectic.
Not only do we live in a fast-paced community, but also in a society that, as a whole, is driven to flourish. While stress is not confined into a cookie-cutter mold and will take on many shapes in our lifetime, it takes on its own meaning on a college campus.
We live in a shared environment with similar experiences so it is impossible not to encounter a generally uniform feeling of being overwhelmed. Stress in a way can be thought of as its own language that varies from country to country and place to place.
Claudia Bradley is a sophomore pyschology major.