Mental Health on Campus - Contest Entry*
It’s hard enough to be accepted in today’s world for being who you are as a person. It’s even more stressful when your in college and trying to be accepted. You are going around trying to make friends, trying to see what food to eat, making sure your financial aid is in order, trying to see if that girl from algebra likes you. There are a large multitude of things to think about on a daily basis while in college, all these things can make mental health a critical thing to pay attention to especially while being a student in college today.
When coming out of high school most freshmen are trying to get their feet wet and have a good time. Especially the first month of school getting acclimated to their new surroundings. Getting used to all the free time of their hands. That first month of school is funny in a way that, some kids want to try to go out and prove something. They may want to go out and prove that they can hang with the big dogs on campus. They want to go out and drink till they put their liver in a choke-hold, and smoke till they have one brain cell left. All this can cause a strain on the mental health of a individual when classes start and this continuing cycle of partying and smoking becomes a staple in their life.
But when reality kicks down the door of the mind and wakes them up it may be too late. They find out at midterms that they are failing three of their five classes and the the one’s they are passing are basic classes such as Freshmen Year Experience and gym. The news spreads like wildfire that Johnny is going down the wrong road, and that he could lose his football scholarship for acting irrational and not completing the task of going to class and passing. Now Johnny feels shame and is looked at as a failure. That can greatly impact the mental health of anyone. Knowing that you have dropped the ball on a quality education and becoming a success in life. So with all this going on mental health can be shaken, rattled and rolled all at the same time. So it’s good to know that you have options to be a success and to have stable mental health, or to be looked at as a failure and another statistic on campus and in America also.
