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A bowl is most useful when it is empty. — Lao Tzu
Imagine this: day after day of pulling all-nighters, the sound of your professors becoming your background noise, coffee, and energy drinks streaming down your veins as you try your hardest to take in every bit of information that you can retain. Every eye bag gained is tagged with “I just have to finish this, and then it’ll be done with,” every meal missed in favor of studying is paid with the thought of “I just need to pass this and then it’ll be worth it, it’ll be okay.”
You take the exams; they’re grueling, heavy on both the brain and the soul (could you be more dramatic with the soul part? Who knows, it doesn’t feel dramatic enough), click after click blurring with how your pen writes on paper. You take them all without fail, without missing a beat, all the while thinking about the next one that comes after that, and then the towering list of projects that also need your attention after this period, and it almost seems too many to sift through.
Then, just as you’re finally finished with everything, just as you’re about to breathe and get a snack for a job well done—
Professor X has invited you to a Zoom meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
…Can’t a student catch a break?
It goes without saying that it’s highly important to keep one’s mental health in a good, well-maintained state (especially for young adults, like college students). Without caring for one’s mental health, it becomes difficult to deal with everyday tasks and responsibilities and even more so to remain in a highly competitive environment such as a college classroom. To make sure that a student is at the peak of their learning psyche, at the best of their form, their mental health should be considered for every decision that the university does concerning their academic life.
Though not every university chooses to mandate it, and though it's to each university's discretion whether or not to give their students a mental health break, I think we’ve all come to a point where administrations might want to start considering issuing it out more consistently. With the amount of stress and strife students are subject to, mental health breaks should no longer be optional for universities—especially on periods when students are expected to power through both exams and grade-defining projects at a time. After putting so much time, energy, and effort into their studies, students should be given at least a few days to rest their overworked brains and ease into a more comfortable state of mind before they’re expected to start a new round of lessons and discussions.
Compensation for the way they’re overloaded, one may think of it. Though, really, it’s just a recuperation period before they’re put through the same cycle again.
We can all benefit from having breaks because really, a person can only take in so much information—so much stimuli—before tapping out. We’re not exactly built for never-ending hours of reading and writing and analyzing and creating. At one point or another, we’re all bound to get overwhelmed with the number of things we have to deal with before we’re expected to sit back down in classes just to take in more. Everyone has a limit, and with the way things are structured, it seems as though we’re expected to nearly breach it every time just before we come crashing down for a new semester. It won't be long until our mental capacity becomes overtaxed and our energy reserves are completely depleted, considering how we’re being driven to accomplish everything within a limited period of time, only to start over in the blink of an eye without even a breather.
It’s not logical to think that such rigid ways are sustainable for the students’ mental health in the long term; why should universities wait for the agonized calls for a break before they even think about granting it to them?
Some older, “more experienced” adults may argue that it’s only natural for them to get thrusted back into classes without pause, saying that that’s the way life is meant to be—hectic and crammed and stressful beyond belief, especially if they are to compete in their to-be workplace environment. “College is supposed to be that hard and unforgiving, it’s preparing you for your future in the workforce” is a regular sentiment that adults give in their poor attempt at comforting those who might be breaking down from the pressure. It could be the empowering statement that they’re trying to make it out to be (had it not been tone-deaf), however, I reckon that that’s all the more reason why minimal to no mental health breaks shouldn’t be the norm.
Because if that’s the future that we’re supposed to be facing as soon-to-be professionals, then why should we be subjected to it so early into our formative years? If that’s the future that we’re to be given in the workplace, then why are we already being forced to deal with it now when we’re supposed to be at a lower level from it? In being driven to near collapse for the sake of “preparation for the real world,” we’re at a greater risk of facing burnout much earlier in our careers and suffering all the more for it.
Universities are meant to educate their students and prepare them for the “real world,” that much is true, but that doesn’t mean the route they should take is one of complete steel and fire. If anything, universities should use this time to take care of their students just as much as they educate them, and help them develop better habits that can improve their mental health in the long run—which I believe can be far more beneficial in preparing them for life in the professional world.
And if such is the case, then what better way to take care of them, than to provide them with the necessary time to rest their entire beings, after combating such rigorous academic demands, before they’re bound to get up and work again?