Ready or not here it comes!

While the fall semester comes to an end, stress levels among students begin to rise.

When the pressure of school escalates it can make college life seem impossible. This is evident with last month’s on campus murder. 19 year old Quran Jones is charged with beating his roommate to death with a baseball bat. Could his act of rage been set off from the demands of school?

While my stress levels are not leading me to act out in rage, it has put a strain on my already complicated life.

Being a Sac State student is difficult enough but when I add the single mom of two small children and a part time bartender to the equation, it seems near impossible. Oh, let’s not forget that it is November and I only have a few weeks to complete 16 more units……well I hope.

My stress levels begin to escalate at 6:00 a.m. when I am lining up three lunches and begin the exhausting process of getting the three of us out the door and off to school. Getting out the door on time is difficult enough but it seems as though my stress levels begin to rise with the sun on my driveway at 7:00 a.m.

At 7:00 a.m. my blood pressure has reached boiling point and the anxiety of yet another day begins to burn through my skin. At 7:00 a.m. I am already 5 minutes late and they (my six year old and three old) should understand the need for urgency.

Unfortunately they don’t and at 7:00 a.m. this is what I may hear while trying to rush two little people in a freezing, dew covered Volkswagen.

“Hurry up and get in the car, we are late!”
“Mom I dropped my breakfast bar”, sobbing.
“Get in and buckle up, I will grab you another one”, grunting.

As I return with a freshly packaged wholesome breakfast from “Mr. Quaker”, my son stares up at me with the biggest brown eyes and says, “Mom I peed my pants.”


This is that point, you know the point where the suns excruciating rays ignite my fuse and cause it to detonate unexpectedly; the point where I follow the blast with a ten minute apology as we drive to school.


Oh wait, I almost forgot I am writing about the stress of school. As students we are supposed to have one job which is attend class and do homework. I apologize I got off track talking about the stress of life.


Truth is I know few people who are just students. Especially given today’s economy, students work and support their families while maintaining their busy school schedule.


Few professors calculate student’s personal lives when piling up term papers, long drawn out readings and the occasional “project”, which means hours of time on an assignment that serves little purpose of the class material.


Professors that understand the balance of life and school still do exist, however they are a small breed and soon will probably be extinct.


In the mean time we as students must try and not let the close of the fall semester get the best of us. No matter what happens in the last four weeks of class we will have deadlines and all nighters. The important thing is that we look ahead at the goal rather than the immediate task at hand. More imperative is to not let the stress that rises with the morning sun completely burn us out, so that we will return next semester, and subject ourselves to chaos all over again.