How Overwhelming is College, Really?
Written by Lauren Smyth
In college, you’re the master of your own destiny. Whether that destiny takes place at 6:00 a.m. (if you’re my roommate) or 12:00 a.m. (if you’re me) is entirely up to you. Want a burger at 2:32 in the morning? You can get one. Feel like working up a running start and hurling yourself into Baw Beese Lake? No one can stop you. Finding yourself tempted to double- or triple-book your calendar, banking on the unprecedented development of teleportation powers? You can. (Don’t.)
College is vastly different from high school. At Hillsdale, there’s no bus to catch, no requirement for taking 8:00 a.m. classes, and comparatively little mandatory homework. Your dorm mom won’t scold you if she spots you on the sofa playing Stardew Valley instead of studying. Your professor won’t say anything if you miss a class here and there.
In short, you can now do whatever you want. Finances and the laws of physics are your only limitations.
College offers tremendous freedom and frightful responsibility—two forces that can feel like they’re working in opposite directions—and you have only yourself to blame or congratulate for the outcome. That is what makes college so different from high school, and that’s what leads to exhaustion.
Here’s an example. Suppose that physics and finances allow for two choices: Eating popcorn in bed or going to your early-morning exercise class. One of those choices is a clear winner. (And if you aren’t sure which it is, stop lying to yourself.) If you’re the type of student who wants to do well, impress everyone, and satisfy your work ethic, you’ll probably need to choose the class over the extra hour in bed. But boy, oh boy, does that become difficult when it’s negative three degrees outside and the gym is half a mile away.
You, hardworking student that you are, choose to go to class. That requires discipline. And discipline requires energy—mental energy to make the decision and stick with it, and physical energy to complete the chosen action. If choices require energy, then the more choices there are, the more energy you must spend in choosing. There are many choices in college.
That’s how burnout happens. The constant process of choosing against the current, of working when you’d rather play, playing when you’d rather sleep, and sleeping when you’d rather relax, is exhausting. But it’s also a non-negotiable. Discipline will be both the backbone and the bane of your college experience.
Paradoxically, if discipline is the source of burnout, it’s also the cure. The key to eliminating choice-based burnout is, unsurprisingly, limiting your choices. It takes discipline to choose, and it takes discipline to voluntarily surrender some choices.
Returning to the example above, suppose you have no choice but to go to class because you made a deal with your roommate: If you don’t get out of bed, they have the solemn obligation to spray you with a refrigerated water gun. Unless you’re willing to risk an ice-cold shot to the face, you have to get up. There’s no longer a decision to be made, only an action to be completed. One-half the discipline process was complete before you started, allowing you to spend half as much energy thinking about it.
You may not have a roommate to keep you accountable, but there are other options. Journaling, for example, forces you to consider whether you achieved everything you promised yourself you’d finish throughout the day. Did you deliver that package to the housemate who asked you for a favor? Did you send the professor the information you promised? Are you ready to go to bed and rest well, or is there one more thing you should cross off your list? You could simply write at the top of the page: “Did I do everything I said I’d do?” and answer “yes” or “no.” Boom—accountability that costs nothing besides paper, a pen, and a few minutes of thought.
Ultimately, one of the most valuable skills you can learn in college is how to hold yourself accountable to yourself. Choosing the right thing becomes easy when you’ve trained your mind to desire the right thing, but that skill only comes with practice. The sooner you learn to push yourself toward making the right decision, the sooner you’ll be able to make the right decision easily.
Remember Matthew 5:37: “Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t’” (NLT). If you agree to do something, do it in full. If you say you won’t do something, put it out of your mind. Treating your agreements as obligations rather than decisions (barring extenuating circumstances) will simplify your planning and help you stay sane in the face of seemingly overwhelming choices.
Lauren Smyth, ’25, is an economics major and journalism minor. Outside of starting arguments in philosophy class, she enjoys curling up on a bench outdoors (sun, rain, or snow) to write novels or articles for her blog, www.laurensmythbooks.com.
Published in October 2023