My name is Devin Parkman. And I... am a college student.
I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine in which he insinuated that I had no right to be stressed about school, when it wasn't nearly as difficult as a real job. Now, you can imagine, I got a bit heated about this, especially hearing it from somebody who never actually went to college.
College has the potential to be the most fun time of your life. But there's also a lot of pressure involved. College is the stepping stone between being a kid and being an adult, after all, for a great many people. And, for many of us, our dream careers depend on our ability to obtain that printed and framed piece of paper that we covet so dearly. And the teachers aren't about to just hand it over so easily.
Take, for example, a test I recently took in Art History 1. This test was, single-handedly, the most difficult test I have ever taken. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the material, but the sheer amount of information required to be memorized for a single test was outrageous! We covered 40 pieces of artwork in the unit, and were required to know them by name, date, region, and artist. Sure, only 10 of them were going to be covered on the test, but the teacher refused to tell us which ones. This was followed by naming the different parts of common Greek architecture- a section that I'm pretty sure I got every question wrong. And at the end of the test were two essay questions in which we were asked to compare two pieces of artwork as in depth as possible, one page each, fifteen minutes each.
Now, the sheer pressure of that one test was enough to match that preceding any final I have ever taken in school, and I could tell I wasn't the only one- five or six of us had a last minute study session in the lobby of King Hall using flash cards, each of us panicking in our own ways. Art History 1 and 2 are required classes for art majors. If we don't pass the class, we don't get our diploma.
College may not be the most difficult part of life, but it's certainly no cake walk. For many of us, our entire future rides on every decision we make, every grade, every chapter in every textbook. But many people, professors included, don't seem to realize this. And they especially seem to have a tendency to forget that we have other classes besides theirs. I have yet another teacher which has apparently decided that doing two separate projects at the same time is a good experience for us- two in-depth design projects that require research as well as creativity. However, to date, we haven't been given more than the last fifteen minutes of each class to work on these projects in class- being expected to do the rest on our own time. For me, these projects coincide with a Masonite sculpture I have to do for 3 Dimensional Design, and a research paper for Composition 1 in which I have to explain the concept of character design for animation. I'm lucky that these were the only classes I'm taking this semester. Other students are not so lucky.
I'd have to say that if there's one thing that sets a full-time job and college apart is that, at the end of the day, you don't have to take your work home with you at a job. Sure, there are exceptions to this, such as if you're an architect or an illustrator or writer, but generally if you work in a factory or restaurant or whatnot, once your shift ends, you get to go home and relax until tomorrow. Since this semester has started, I've had little to no chance to do much of anything after school outside of home, bogged down with papers, design work, and more thumbnail sketches than I can even begin to count.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't assume that a college student has no real reason to be stressed out. Many of them have a lot on their shoulders, and have to couple that with a night job as well. People with full-time jobs may forget that these students are working their butts off to get the same kinds of jobs or better.
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