By: Jackie McNeill
When I had friends over as a kid, I would pull my mom aside after a few hours and ask, “When are they going to leave?” It’s not that I wasn’t having fun — I loved seeing my friends, but this time with others never failed to become draining and leave me with a need for some alone time.
While I once thought this desire to be alone was abnormal and unhealthy, as I got older I learned to take advantage of it to promote self-improvement. Left alone with just my thoughts, I’ve had the opportunity to think critically about who I am as a person, what I like about myself and what I want to do better.
Learning about who I was, both outside and inside of my relationships with others, and working to better myself has helped to increase my self-esteem exponentially over years of self-reflection.
I’ve experienced how this increase in self-esteem has aided my relationship with myself, but studies show that it can also benefit the way we interact with others.
Megan McCarthy, a professor in the department of psychology at the University of Waterloo, suggests that people with low self-esteem are more likely to stay in unhappy relationships with others, resulting from their resistance to recognize and address problems.
“People with a more negative self-concept often have doubts and anxieties about the extent to which other people care about them,” explained McCarthy.
The self-concept is our idea of self, constructed through a combination of our own beliefs about ourselves and how others respond to us. A negative self-concept, then, can cause someone to assume negative reactions towards them and therefore avoid confrontation or conflict as a defense against these assumptions being actualized.
So, an increase in self-esteem can certainly improve romantic relationships, but those are not the only relationships we experience. Every interaction we have, be it with friends, family, or even our co-workers, can benefit from the practice of self-love and self-care.
Time alone also increases communication with the self through self-awareness. When I spend time alone, my own thoughts, feelings and desires become my priority. This has helped me realize that communicating with myself should remain a priority throughout my life, including when I interact with others, paving the way for honest and open relationships.
In addition, being self-aware has allowed me to be more receptive of others’ thoughts, feelings and desires, which may reflect similar concerns or insecurities that I possess. By reflecting upon the self, we can become more sensitive and considerate towards the people we build relationships with.
It is important to note that my idea of alone is not one size fits all. Spending time alone can simply mean loneliness for some people, and as a Psychology Today article explains this can lead to anxieties, depression, or reminders of loss and abandonment.
McMaster University’s Prof. Tara Marshall illustrates this idea through the example of a breakup.
“After a breakup, people who are more secure in relationships and have higher self-esteem are more likely to desire some time alone,” explained Marshall.
“They may engage in some personal growth-enhancing experiences. People high in anxious attachment, on the other hand, desire to go on the rebound after a breakup,” she added.
Marshall went on to explain that humans are social by nature and we have a need to belong to social groups as our survival has depended on it throughout history. So it is important to balance time spent alone with socialization, just as it’s important to get to know yourself and what will work well for your own self-esteem.
The point of this time spent alone is to improve your feelings about yourself, but also to use this to positively affect your relationships with others. What works for me won’t work for everyone, but maybe by sharing my experience others will venture to learn more about themselves and how they interact with others.
Of course, when trying to self-reflect as a student several issues present themselves. Our days are packed with studying, interactions with peers everywhere on campus, trying to balance friends, a job, finishing that essay and visiting family; our minds never get a break.
So how do you get some quiet time in a busy day? Try the silent study in Mills— it’s a great way to ease yourself into being alone because you’re surrounded by other students, but everyone is focused on their own work. There’s no opportunity for socialization to distract you from yourself.
Sitting still can be difficult, so go for a walk alone in a quiet neighbourhood. No phone calls or music, just reflect on that day or what’s to come and make an effort to think positively.
If these options take too much time, go to bed 20 minutes earlier than usual and let your mind wander while trying some deep breathing. This can help ease stress and relax your mind, leaving it open for reflection.
This time alone allows you to drop what Psychology Today calls your “social guard.” Pay attention to how you behave alone and compare it to how you behave around others, and maybe work to let some of your “alone” self bleed into your public persona.
Whether you crave alone time like me or not, we can all benefit from a bit of self-reflection to better our relationship with ourselves and others. Self-awareness and the resulting higher self-esteem make an impact on the way we interact with others, and can keep our relationships open, honest and healthy.
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If you browsed through social media on Jan. 30, chances are you saw #BellLetsTalk circulating around. Political leaders, celebrities, corporations and even McMaster University shared the hashtag in support of “ending the stigma” around mental illness.
Success and meaning can be found along many paths, but the paths can be rough and winding. | @McMasterSWC #BrighterWorld #BellLetsTalk https://t.co/fzBIjSte6G
— McMaster University (@McMasterU) January 30, 2019
But like #BellLetsTalk, McMaster’s mental health initiatives seem more performative than anything else. While offering “self-care” tips and hour-long therapy dog sessions can help students de-stress and perhaps initiate conversations about mental health, it alone is not sufficient.
This sentiment is shared amongst many other students and has been brought up time after time. It is truly disheartening then that the university seems to do little to meaningfully address students’ concerns.
https://twitter.com/calvinprocyon/status/1090777829510397952
Instead of investing in more counsellors at the Student Wellness Centre or restructuring their support systems on campus, starting Feb.4, McMaster is running Thrive Week. Thrive Week is a week-long initiative aimed to “explore [students’] path to mental health”. The week boasts events including yoga, Zumba and meditation circles.
There is no doubt that engaging in wellness and mindfulness activities, including activities like yoga and Zumba, can help alleviate some of the stresses of university and can positively benefit your mental health.
However, it is in itself not enough to actually help students overcome mental health issues. McMaster acknowledges that most students seem to experience, at least during some point in their undergraduate career, mental health issues. This is telling of a systemic issue. Mental health issues are largely attributable to socioeconomic factors. Financial strain, food insecurity and lack of a responsive administration can all factor into developing mental health issues as a student.
The best way to help students is to address the root of the problem, which often lies within the very structures of the university. Until McMaster addresses these systemic issues, yoga classes and wellness panels will do little to remedy students’ concerns.
Beyond addressing systemic issues, students struggling with mental health issues can’t colour their issues away; they require professional help. It is true that the university offers trained peer-support volunteers at services like the Student Health Education Centre and the Women Gender and Equity Network, but again, this is not enough. The responsibility of students’ mental health should not fall on the shoulders of other students.
If the university truly cared about their students’ mental health, they would invest in more counsellors and actively work towards ensuring that waiting times at SWC aren’t months on end. They would make systems for receiving academic accommodations more accessible, as they currently require students to provide documentation of diagnosed mental health issues.
Talk is cheap. So are free Zumba classes. While raising awareness and reducing the stigma around mental is important, what students need is real change to ensure there are actual support systems on campus. The university has a responsibility to make that change happen.
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By: Natalie Clark
The definition of “Thrive” is most simply put as “to progress toward or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.” This definition embodies the true meaning of McMaster’s first ever Thrive Week, beginning Feb. 4.
Thrive Week is a week-long series of events focusing on improving and maintaining good mental health of students, staff and faculty on campus.
Events include yoga, Zumba, meditation circles, stress management workshops and various panels for students to get information on a variety of topics such as career planning and suicide awareness.
Although Thrive Week is new to McMaster, the wellness event has been a part of many schools around Canada for the past 10 years.
“Thrive began at [University of British Columbia] in 2009 and since then, a number of Canadian colleges and universities have adopted the spirit of Thrive,” mentioned McMaster wellness educator, WilPrakash Fujarczuk.
“The wellness education team decided to join these schools for a number of reasons… one reason is to connect students to pre-existing services on campus… we know that there are a number of departments that promote mental wellness in ways that may not be so obvious,” said Fujarczuk.
Fujarczuk mentions “Sketching Thursdays” at the McMaster Museum of Art, which is a weekly event that allows students to distance themselves from their devices and work on mindfulness and creative expression.
Thrive Week is intended to promote events similar to “Sketching Thursdays” on campus and add additional resources and events throughout Thrive Week for students to participate in to further their mental health journey.
“Thrive is also an opportunity to bring in community partners to showcase the valuable expertise that Hamilton community resources have to offer,” mentioned Fujarczuk.
Some of the community partners that are taking part in Thrive Week at McMaster include Healing Together Yoga, The AIDS Network and Asian Community AIDS Services.
Body Brave, another Hamilton-based organization, will also be taking part in the event to introduce students and staff to their off campus support system. Body Brave’s main purpose is to address the major gaps in resources for eating disorders, raise awareness and reduce the stigma around eating disorders, particularly with those who are over the age of 18.
Kelsea McCready, a McMaster student who holds the position of secretary on the board of directors at Body Brave, mentions the barriers that individuals may face when struggling with an eating disorder and are looking for help.
“Programs within Ontario as a whole have a limited capacity which means that many individuals who are struggling are left on long waitlists without any kind of specialized support,” mentioned McCready.
McCready notes that although Body Brave is not a direct replacement for professional specialized support for eating disorders, the organization offers a variety of affordable treatment programs such as workshops, individual treatment and support groups.
“It is a priority for Body Brave to engage more with the McMaster community as an off-campus support in addition to on-campus services,” said McCready.
Body Brave’s involvement in Thrive Week is important for those who may be suffering from an eating disorder and are wary to seek out support. Thrive Week introduces programs and organizations to the McMaster campus that are similar to Body Brave in order to make these services more accessible to students.
“Given that it’s our first year running Thrive, we are hoping to use it as an opportunity to evaluate programs and build on for future years,” said Fujarczuk.
While Thrive events will only be taking place for a week, the path towards bettering the mental health of the McMaster community needs to be addressed and explored on a consistent basis. Thrive Week is the first step towards shedding light on the services available on-campus and in the community.
Thrive Week will be running on campus from Feb. 4 to Feb. 9. More information about the event can be found on the Student Wellness Centre’s website, which includes the Thrive Week schedule and other mental health resources found year-round on campus.
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By: Daanish Kachalia and Ryan Veerasammy
Juggling an academic, social and personal life, it’s no wonder that many students, ourselves included, wish there were more hours in the day. For the past few weeks, we have been committed to maximizing each day — starting with waking up early. Starting our days at 6 a.m. has markedly improved our lives.
Leaving the house before the sun rises invokes a feeling like no other. It is extremely satisfying to succeed in the challenge of waking up early. As a result of our early wake-up time, we found that we were motivated to be more productive as we didn’t want to waste the effort it took to get out of bed.
Even though the initial step of waking up can be difficult, the rewards are invaluable. In order to take that first step, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were required.
Our intrinsic motivation consisted of researching the effects of waking up early as a student.
Texas University conducted a study where they found that students who classified themselves as “morning people” had a higher grade point average compared to the average student. A different study completed by Harvard University concluded that individuals who wake up early are more proactive and anticipate problems better.
Our extrinsic motivation stemmed from one another. We challenged each other that if we were not awake by 6 a.m., the person that woke up late would have to buy the other a coffee. By creating a competition, we were more motivated to complete the challenge.
One of the largest challenges in waking up early that we both encountered was restraining from pressing the snooze button. To combat this, we kept our alarms away from our beds so we were forced to get up when they went off in the morning.
Before starting this challenge, we both never had the time to eat breakfast. Now, we incorporated this meal into our everyday life. This has contributed towards a healthier lifestyle and an overall improved outlook for the day.
As the days pass, it is becoming easier to wake up earlier in the morning as our bodies are adjusting to this new routine. We have also noticed reduced stress levels as we can take additional time to complete tasks without feeling rushed or pressured.
We encourage the students of McMaster University to take on the challenge of waking up early. From our experience, we can assure that accomplishing this challenge on a continuous basis will undoubtedly affect your life in a positive way!
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It’s the end of November; assignments are due, finals are imminent, I’m writing a graduate school admissions test in two weeks and the scones I have in the oven are almost ready to come out. The timer finishes and rings. I scramble to the kitchen, pull the tray out and leave it to cool. Back to studying.
I grew up cooking and baking with my mother. At first, I mostly just stirred in (and ate) chocolate chips. But as I got older, I got to take a more involved role in the process, and my appreciation for my mom’s cookies, stews and cakes grew. Practically everything she touched turned out deliciously, which was impressive in its own right. But so was her time management, especially around family dinners and holidays. She kept meticulous lists of what had been prepared and what was still left to do. The pre-Christmas baking was busy, sure, but my mom was never stressed.
When I started university, I aspired to that. I wanted to be able to fend for myself as a real adult. Residence, of course, is not a place to develop those skills, and throughout my first year I felt hamstrung; I had limited control over my lifestyle. Cooking facilities were limited at best, and there was nowhere to safely store any groceries other than a milk carton and a few apples. The same was true in second year. Though I shared a house with a group of people I loved and got along with, the kitchen barely had enough counter space for one person to be cooking, let alone six.
There’s a peace that comes with entering the kitchen with a new recipe in my hand because I know that for the next 20, 30, 60 minutes, I can work undisturbed.
In third year I finally started to feel some freedom in this regard. My new apartment had actual counter space. I could easily keep track of my spice cupboard and baking essentials and I actually had room to store them all. At last, I had found a home in which I could really explore cooking and baking on my own, and honestly, it’s been the only activity I find consistently relieves stress.
I know this isn’t necessarily the most agreed-upon way to relax, but hear me out. There is something incredibly soothing about rote tasks; chopping vegetables, hand-mixing batter or measuring flour that puts me at ease. I can take out my frustration with a particular problem by mincing shallots as small as I possibly can, or release tension after a deadline by shaping and cutting dough into scones.
Ultimately, it’s (usually) rewarding. I get to eat something that I made, which comes with a particular kind of pride. Often I’ll have to learn a new technique, experiment or improvise based on what I have in my kitchen. I also have to factor in that my appliances aren’t exactly state of the art. Learning new skills or adapting them based on the space and equipment at my disposal is a kind of skill I can’t pick up doing anything else, and even if my cookies don’t look as pretty as those photographed in my cookbook, they still taste pretty great.
Experimenting with cooking has also improved my relationship with food simply because I have so much control over what I eat. As someone who hasn’t always had the healthiest of perspective with what and how I eat, cooking and baking what I want, when I want has alleviated much of my anxiety about food.
Preparing a meal or dessert is one of the few activities where I take time for myself. I’m not checking my phone, replying to emails or planning how to divide the rest of my time for doing schoolwork. In that moment, I’m just focusing on adding the right amount of flour, making sure the eggshells don’t get in the batter or ensuring that my chicken is fully cooked. There’s a peace that comes with entering the kitchen with a new recipe in my hand because I know that for the next 20, 30, 60 minutes, I can work undisturbed.
As I careen further into Real Adulthood, baking in particular becomes something of a social activity. Even within our Silhouette Slack group, we have a channel for sharing recipes, and there have been multiple discussions of potlucks or family dinner style get-togethers.
Cooking allows me to use skills I don’t get to improve on in the classroom. Being able to shape your thoughts into an essay or understand a complicated concept is rewarding, but if I had to list my accomplishments this term, baking bread on my own, in my ancient oven, for the first time would be near the top of my list.
Making a nice dinner or a fancy dessert may not erase my deadlines or get my essays written faster, but it clears my head and calms me in a way nothing else does. The smell wafting from the kitchen when the timer goes off is just a bonus.
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By: Owen Angus-Yamada
Exams are one of the most stressful times for students because so much of a class rides on the result of one test. Students are constantly told that performances on these tests are crucial to getting accepted to graduate school or getting hired at a prestigious, high paying workplace. While good grades often lead to success, high marks shouldn’t necessarily be the highest priority for students. When did we start going to school to perform well instead of to learn?
Now, before you say, “Performing well on a test reflects your knowledge of a subject, idiot,” ask yourself how much you remember from last semester’s classes. For the majority of people, I can almost guarantee that all those carefully crafted notes and hours of practice problems have lead to little or no long term retention. We can’t remember because we were too focused on our grade outcomes. We study for what’s going to be tested, not to develop our understanding of the subject.
Some of us even go out of our way to take “bird courses” that will result in an easy A to add to our transcript. We forget that we’re here to learn about what we want to spend our lives doing.
Much of McMaster’s priority, unfortunately, seems to be on this short-term performance rather than on ways to encourage long-term retention. While extending the library hours during exam periods is nice and the fall reading week helps to break the material up a bit, these don’t add enough to remembering the course material once you’re done.
When it comes to aiding students with depression, anxiety and stress brought on by exams and marks, McMaster offers support in the forms of counselling and even visits from friendly therapy dogs, but these are short-term solutions that mask the larger issue.
They do not deal with the issue that these negative emotions are brought on university’s heavy emphasis on performance culture rather than being a learning environment.
When stress and anxiety kick in this exam season, you should take a look in the mirror and ask how important performing well on these exams actually is. Not everything rides on a single outcome.
There also seems to be hesitancy to use the beneficial parts of some classes in more traditional courses. Solutions like placing less emphasis on exams and shifting the weight to more constant assessments, exploring blended learning a bit more and reducing lectures in favour of different types of learning are all possible in most courses.
I am also a believer in the effectiveness of pass or fail classes. It takes the ideas of marks completely out of the picture to redirect students’ focus on content understanding and retention. These might be difficult and require more effort from professors, but should be better for students’ learning, development and long-term performance.
With these suggestions and how your courses may currently be, the end-goal of learning should always be the primary objective with your grades being secondary. However, this involves not only increasing long-term retention, but not worrying too much about short-term results.
Learning and development happens only after countless failed attempts so we shouldn’t be afraid to fail. Failure should be the goal in every classroom. Instead of bell curving tests and handing out bonus marks, professors should push every student outside their intellectual comfort zone in the hopes they fail.
If you truly enjoy doing something, it doesn’t matter if you fail as long as you improve. If you’re not passionate about what you’re studying, your goal should still be constant improvement.
When stress and anxiety kick in this exam season, you should take a look in the mirror and ask how important performing well on these exams actually is. Not everything rides on a single outcome.
Try your best, but don’t be afraid to fail as long as you continue to learn from the experience. Marks do not define you.
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For the first time in its history, McMaster instigated a week-long break in the fall of 2015. This marked a major departure from the University’s previous practice which, following advocacy efforts from the MSU, included a short, two-day break added to a weekend at the end of October.
According to Heather Poole, a post-doctoral fellow working with the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Learning, many universities and colleges across the country have introduced a midterm break in their fall semesters to help students cope with the stress that tends to accompany the accumulation of midterms, essays and extra-curricular commitments. The break is also intended to help prevent students from dropping out of school.
The addition of a week-long break is in and of itself unremarkable. More and more institutions are adopting the practice every year. “In spite of the fact that this has become a pattern across the country, nobody has really looked at whether it actually helps students to manage stress and whether it helps them academically, and so that’s what we’re seeking to do,” explained Poole.
As part of a team of staff from multiple departments and divisions within McMaster, Poole and her co-researchers have taken to scrutinizing the break from multiple perspectives, asking students, professors and other members of the University’s staff to participate in surveys prior to and after the break last fall, as well as a follow-up survey in January. “We were interested in whether students are actually using this for stress-relief activities, whether they are using it for studying, with those sort of being the goal set out by the University, or whether they are going home to a part-time job or to family responsibilities,” she said. In addition to the surveys, a small number of students volunteered to send the researchers text message updates over the course of their Fall Break, and others had cortisol samples taken before and after the break to examine stress levels as cortisol spikes when a subject is under pressure. Despite the small sample size, Poole commented that a change in cortisol levels was observed, however she would not confirm whether levels increased or decreased as a result of the break.
“In spite of the fact that this has become a pattern across the country, nobody has really looked at whether it actually helps students to manage stress and whether it helps them academically, and so that’s what we’re seeking to do.”
While the group is still analyzing the multiple types of feedback they received, Poole has already been able to make some observations about some of the results, mainly the surveys thus far. Part of these surveys asked students to rate their perceived stress levels as well as check off items from a list of standard “stressors,” such as losing one’s keys or having to write a test. “When we look at what happened in patterns of pre- and post-Fall Break, the number of stressors that students were reporting was lower after the break, so they were actually experiencing … fewer stressful events after the fall break [however] they were reporting higher perceived stress after the Fall Break.” More analysis must be done before these results can be interpreted in a meaningful way, however the preliminary results show that the effects of McMaster’s Fall Break could be more complicated than simply reducing student stress levels. The team hopes to gain more insight into the complexities surrounding stress levels in follow-up focus groups.
The response rate for the surveys was higher than Poole anticipated.
“People seem to be really interested in it, which is really good and I mean it’s not always that typical in research.”
The questionnaires sent out immediately before and after the break garnered about 2,300 responses each. The January follow-up survey was filled out by about 1,150 students. Of those who responded to the first two surveys, close to 80 percent reported that the Fall Break was beneficial. However, the remaining 20 percent found it to be detrimental on the whole. Poole hopes to look at the latter group with greater focus.
“It’s possible that students in a particular faculty are saying that their stress has increased or maybe it depends on how many assignments or tests they had right after the break,” she explained. This information could be given to instructors to improve how courses are structured.
Much like the students, professors gave a mixed review of the break.
“A lot of professors are saying that it was useful for them personally as sort of prep time, but then others are saying, well it’s kind of too early for that … which was also a thing that came out in a lot of the students comments.”
Due to the extensive planning required to schedule the McMaster school year, students will not see any short-term changes to the structure of their academic year. “I would be surprised if any changes come about based on this research for next fall, but we certainly feel like it’s been a worthwhile study and we’ve gotten a good sampling of the student voice,” Poole concluded. Poole and her team plan to release further results in June.
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Stress manifests itself in many ways. During my transition to first year, I worried so much about my grades that my acne breakouts became worse than ever before. I lost ten pounds from eating irregularly and never had a proper sleep schedule. But none of these things particularly worried me: I had concealer for my pimples, breaks in between classes for naps, and losing weight, despite the probable long-term health consequences, was more preferable than the dreaded “freshman fifteen.” What plagued me the most was that I seemed to be losing a great deal of hair.
My hair would come out in clumps in the shower, to the point where I’d be glad for my near-sightedness. It littered the sink whenever I used my blow dryer. It created massive hairballs that collected on my carpet, and every time I cleaned out my comb. I began dreading visits to my hairdresser, mainly because he would always comment on how much less hair I had in comparison to the last time I had gone to see him.
I consulted my doctor, only to find she was equally baffled; my blood tests suggested everything was perfectly ordinary. She initially suggested iron supplements, but told me to stop after my iron levels became adequate despite no visible effects on my hair. I spent two and a half hours waiting in a walk-in clinic to get a different opinion, only to have my concerns dismissed. I switched shampoos, included more protein in my diet, and even stopped using straighteners and hair curlers altogether. But no matter how hard I tried, losing hair was the one thing I just couldn’t compensate for. I became acutely afraid of the inevitability of premature balding, for which there appeared to be no cure.
Most websites suggest hereditary reasons as the main cause of baldness. In addition to inheritance, they mention illness and of course, stress, which also tends to be the main explanation I get from friends after haranguing them with my complaints. But then I stumbled across a Marie Claire article on dealing with female hair loss, which mentioned roughly 24 percent of women equate losing hair to losing a limb. I began to wonder: what exactly constituted the exaggerated fear of losing all my hair? It wasn’t so much vanity as the abnormality with which we viewed female baldness.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I told myself how much easier it would be to deal with hair loss if I were a man. This is not to say that it isn’t also a concern for men, but to point out that male-patterned baldness is generally more accepted, particularly as we age. Dwayne Johnson is bald. Patrick Stewart is bald. Homer Simpson is bald. Even Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender is willingly bald. The problem is that my mind stalls when I try to think of female icons without ample amounts of hair as a part of their regular appearance. If 40 percent of people who deal with hair loss are women, then why do we have this perception that women losing hair is both uncommon and unseemly?
Yes, losing hair is an issue. It may even be an important indicator in terms of signalling that something is wrong with our physical health, or that something is wrong with our lifestyle, and it should definitely be addressed to the best of our abilities. What needs to change, however, is the level of apprehension with which we view it. In the words of Cersei Lannister as she commences her walk of shame; hair grows back. And if it doesn’t?
I will not cringe for them.
In elementary school, we were taught how to use rulers to measure lines. Since those halcyon days, this fascination with measurement has cemented itself in how we view the world. We use grades to measure how well we do on tests, time to measure how long we take to get ready in the morning, and medals of various colours to measure how good we are in comparison to others. Comparison through standardized measurements is almost second nature in university. Only now, we no longer measure lines. Our GPAs are the new standard by which we measure ourselves – and this is a downfall for many.
In an education system that places such great importance on numbers, it often feels as though these marks are a direct reflection of our abilities. Don’t get me wrong, I think university is incredible. There is always more to learn, always something to do. There’s something for everyone. But we often leave out the less glamorous side of post-secondary education, one where hundreds of students fall through the cracks each year into a state of poor mental health.
Mental illness is a real issue, one that is extremely prevalent at McMaster and across the country. By the end of the year, likely half of the people you know will have experienced some sort of mental breakdown. Hundreds of students with bloodshot eyes will have burned themselves out trying to do everything at once by fuelling endless all-nighters with caffeine. Unforeseen circumstances, coupled with a variety of pressures, will send many of our peers into a dangerous spiral. Depression is among one of the most common mental illnesses in university students, but many more hide in the silence that we encourage.
Unsurprisingly, academic stress is a leading cause in mental health issues among university students. A major contributing factor is our susceptibility to tunnel vision. We zero in on getting high marks, and neglect everything in the periphery. Regardless what program you’re in, competition is stiff. We’re young and ambitious. Our blood runs hot and thick, our dreams are big and daring. The bar for success is continually rising, and with that so is the pressure we put on ourselves. When there is a blip in our planning, difficulties and other emotional vulnerabilities are magnified.
A couple weeks ago, I received a set of marks that were the lowest I had ever gotten. I remember being so overwhelmed, I felt paralyzed. All I heard were the humble responses of friends who did well, and all I wanted was to leave the lecture hall and hide in my comforter. I didn’t feel like I belonged in my program anymore. But talking to an upper year student put everything back into perspective. I realized that one mark, no matter how important it may seem at the time, was no measure of my capabilities. The isolation I felt dissipated, and I realized the importance of finding a healthy way to cope with setbacks.
Everyone needs an outlet. It can be anything, as long as it’s something that will give you some time to yourself and help relieve stress. It’s important to schedule in activities that make you happy and recognize how much more there is to life than whatever it is you’re worried about. Some hit the gym. Some dance, some paint, some jog. Some people choose to sit back with a tub of ice cream and Netflix. I write, play volleyball, or spend time with my guitar. Your outlet could be going out and doing something you love, or staying in and doing absolutely nothing at all.
Nobody is immune to pressure. Both the feeling and the effects of stress are harrowing. While finding your outlet is important in maintaining a healthy mind, it is by no means a solution to mental illness. Going to the gym will not end breakdowns, and playing the guitar doesn’t guarantee nirvana. Staying healthy is about taking care of your body and mind, a fact that we often forget.
Our experience at McMaster cannot be measured by how badly we did on that organic chemistry mid-term, or by how we failed last week’s English paper. This isn’t easy to grasp. But by gaming, knitting, or just chilling out, we make numbers and measurements seem a little less important.
You’re in university. You’re brand new, you’ve been here a while (because let’s be real—every undergraduate year is the equivalent of at least five regular years) or you’re about to leave. But whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever point you’re at – you’ve got to make a decision. And the question remains: to commit or not to commit?
Because even though you’re in university and are on your way to becoming an adult, basically everyday is prefaced with a question mark. And, well, you’re in university (and while I think I’ve established this fact, it’s well worth repeating). So, somehow you have to try to find an answer to your daily question while also keeping up with a mountain of schoolwork and juggling your social life, your sleep schedule, and any job commitments you might have. Opportunity abounds – all that’s left is for you to determine whether or not it’s worth taking it.
As someone who has often been accused of over-committing, I present to you, in no particular order, some of my own considerations on deciding whether or not to make a commitment:
1. Do you have the time?
Now, this may seem really obvious, but you’ve got to look at your own work habits and priorities. Maybe your schedule isn’t that full, but the only thing that gets you through the week is every Thursday night out at Snooty’s with your roommates, and that’s when the commitment takes place. Or maybe you only get things done when your schedule is already full, and so adding one more thing will actually make you more productive.
2. Are you passionate about it?
For some people, this is pretty much the only truly important consideration. For others, if it doesn’t add to their resume, then it’s not high priority. Neither of these ways of thinking can be called wrong, but in my experience, I tend to do a way better job if I actually personally care about the work involved. And this doesn’t mean I find every part of the job meaningful, but it does mean that I find the ultimate point of the endeavour worthwhile.
3. Do you need it?
Have you answered your aforementioned daily question? Do you have at least a general idea of the direction you’re headed in? It could be that you don’t have any clue, in which case it might be a good idea to join something that is potentially “unnecessary.” Or maybe it’s your last couple of years, and you know exactly where you want to be once you graduate, and so you have to make a judgment call based on the state of your resume.
4. What do you hope to gain from it?
Do your expectations align with the reality of the commitment? Have you envisioned yourself accomplishing goals that may not be so feasible outside of your imagination? Is there a lot of grunt work involved? Or maybe it’s a huge commitment – one that can detract from another commitment. You need to decide the potential worth, and this can involve some research and realistic thinking on your part.
5. Is it a long-term role?
Some commitments explicitly require that you take on a contract of more than just one school year. This is especially true with research, or if you’re working with a sensitive group that requires stability and consistency in terms of your presence. So, you’ll have to schedule your future accordingly. It can also be implicit – for example, you might take on a smaller role and envision yourself as the president of the club by the time you’ve reached your fourth year. If this is the case, it’s not only important to adjust your commitments, but to also to into consideration: why do you consider this role to be so important? If you’re uncertain about where you want to be in the next few years, this might be a great indication.
6. Check where the commitment falls on your hierarchy of values.
Sometimes commitments aren’t about leadership roles or your future. They can be about relationships – like planning a date night with your significant other once a week, or calling your grandmother every few days. Or it can be more personal, like actually making it to the gym and identifying the point in the day that you are most likely to actually go. This last sort of commitment is often the hardest kind, because the only person you will let down if you fail to honour the commitment is yourself.
7. Have you recognized that maybe it won’t work out?
Sometimes you have to commit a lot of time and effort to something like an interview or a dense application process, and it’s important to understand that you may not even get the role you’re applying for. In this case, you must evaluate the worth you applying, because not only does the amount of effort you put in determine the quality of your application, but it will also make you consider whether the time you will take up in your application or preparing for your interview will be worthwhile.
