“If you don’t go to Boston, I’ll buy you a car.”
It was June, a couple of weeks after I accepted my financial aid package from Boston University, when my father attempted to bribe me out of transferring colleges for my junior year.
Of course his persuasion tactics fell on deaf ears — I am here after all. But the underlying sentiment has since continued to linger: it would be cheaper to buy a brand new luxury car than pay for my tuition.
How do I justify that kind of investment?
I did not want to admit that there was a possibility I was better off with a car, so I intended to maximize my Boston experience early. Thus began the most dejected and stressful summer of my life.
Learning how to balance work and play is necessary for productivity. Pushing yourself to work harder has positive outcomes, but research shows that too much pressure lowers work quality. So it’s no surprise that fatigue, burnout and health risks all follow a bulky workload.
Despite the toll that over-working takes on one’s well being, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America still found that 85 percent of college students feel overwhelmed, leaving us to wonder what drives the majority of students to add this strain.
A big part of my choice to over-work myself came from not wanting to become one of those useless English majors society warned me about. I dreaded the “I told you so” I would get from my parents if I were a jobless, car-less hack. So, in order to mediate the problem, I became the poster child for the ADAA’s study.
I applied for every job posting I saw on LinkedIn and Handshake. Slowly but surely, my resume built itself at the expense of my mental health. With my full-time summer job and new responsibilities pouring in from unpaid internships, all I could think about during my limited free time was how I could be working harder.
The pressure I felt this past summer is not unique. A study for South Dakota State University’s Journal of Undergraduate Research concluded college students tend to feel overwhelmed from an increasing pressure to succeed.
Our generation wants to outdo our parents in order to fulfill the American dream, and American culture promises that hard work reaps great reward. Yet, the data does not play in our favor.
Research by professors at Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley found 90 percent of adults born in 1940 outperformed their parents financially. That percentage dropped to 50 percent for those born in the 80s.
It’s getting more difficult to climb the socioeconomic ladder and American culture has not shifted to accommodate this change.
There is a clear, mounting pressure to be successful from a young age. This pressure can be overwhelming at times, and it is difficult to find an easy escape from the chaos. But it is imperative that you discover ways to give yourself a mental break — I found my refuge in a video game.
Nearly all my downtime this summer was overridden by work. But during one of these allotted 15-minute breaks, I reached out to a friend to catch up. He told me he was about to play a round of League of Legends and he welcomed me to join.
Up until that moment, I felt far too cool — and busy — for League. It seemed like a pointless distraction from the work I could be doing instead. Still, I accepted his invitation, and I found that throughout the entire round we played, I never once stressed out about my productivity level.
When I returned to my responsibilities the next day, I felt more clear-headed than I had in a while. Somehow, the game I teased my friends for playing became a healthy way I removed myself from the toxic “all work, no play” mindset.
Managing high-expectations and mental health is a balancing act, so it is important to keep yourself in check whenever possible. Internalizing that simply “working hard” is not a straight road to success is the first step.
The culture around prosperity in America is suffocating, and many days I wonder if it would have been easier to settle with a car. But I can look forward to a few rounds of League of Legends to help me finally exhale.
