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All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Students should limit activities, take time to relax

Joining and getting involved too much in college can become more of a hassle than not sometimes. College students generally feel the urgent need to get involved in their school or university in order to belong, to be accepted and to find people with whom friendships and relationships can occur and blossom. Through time, however, these once helpful and genial activities can quickly turn time-consuming and stressful. Yet, college students everywhere still feel determined to be as involved as possible as well as keeping themselves consistently busy. But where is the limit regarding how thinly a college student spreads him or herself and their time over their various interests and activities?In this day and age, life moves at a rapid pace. In a subconscious way, college students undoubtedly feel that pressure and respond to it. There is a plethora of activities and interests to choose from at a university or college, including extracurricular activities, various clubs, and the obvious sororities and fraternities. There are also activities that quietly and quickly consume time and energy, such as outside work, social life, volunteering and relationships of all kinds.

Too much, however, can quickly turn what was once fun-filled into something that weighs as heavy as an anchor and causes stress as well. Too many activities can distract college students from their goals, whether it is acquiring a degree from taking classes, earning money from a job, or building friendships or networking contacts. The more involved a student gets in their college life, the more the discipline, awareness and stress levels increase.

These days, this rapid pace of life becomes so normal that students actually thrive on it. They feel empty or purposeless if their social or educational plate is not completely filled to the brim with various activities. Students might feel guilty or believe they are being lazy when their days are not completely full. Whenever there is any downtime or freedom to relax or time to contribute to self-solitude, students might get anxious or bored easily without some required stimuli. They will have forgotten how to create work or activities for themselves instead of always being flooded with it.

One thing students can do is take the time to realize that not every hour of everyday needs to be filled and kept busy. Solitude is good for a person’s health, and calms the mind, body and soul from the everyday white noise and chaos that life can create. Also, joining or participating in a few essential or personally important activities can be better than taking part in everything imaginable. This will eliminate unnecessary stress and strengthen a foundation of discipline that will be constant for later. Overall, being smart and disciplined about what a student is involved in, and not succumbing to outside pressure, can be of the most help. After all, one person can’t do everything, and it is far better to do a few things extremely well with the utmost interest and dedication rather than approaching many things only halfheartedly.

Ylona Cupryjak is a junior photojournalism major from Keller.

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