Every stage in life provides opportunities and challenges in human beings. Each phase allows every individual to learn from personal experiences and acquire knowledge in school and in family and from his or her own mistakes. One of the most remarkable periods in one’s life is going into college and coping with every challenge that it offers. College is the point in life where a number of pressures have been faced and dealt with by students.
Pressure is a life’s test. It is one of the challenges that add spices in the existence of human beings. Having pressure is always a part of one’s life and it is fun and challenging to respond and struggle with it. Anyone cannot run away from it but anyone can manage it. College students are the people who usually deal with various types of pressures. Those pressures revolve on four factors namely family, peers, economic stability and self.
Being in a college would also mean having more responsibilities and expectations. It is inevitable. Family and parental pressures are rooted from their beliefs and expectations on the student; it is about what they want for their son or daughter to achieve. For instance, if a father wants his son to become a doctor, he will order or direct him to take on pre-medical course.
So in return, even though the son does not want to, he will abide with what his father wants. He is then pressured to study hard in order for him to become a doctor and to satisfy his father’s expectations on him. There are also cases when parents draw and reveal their expectations from their children because of the family’s reputation. Because of that, children are expected to perform well in class, to have good grades and to graduate with honors.
Peer pressure is also one of the most challenging aspects in college. It is important that a student knows his or her limitations because peer pressures come in many forms in such a way that student’s friends may or may not be aware of the demands. Peer pressures include inviting a friend to skip classes so they can drink liquor, talk or smoke, encourage a friend to attend a party even though there are exams on the next day and request a friend to join in the slumber get together so they can chat and have a good time. Such requests are temptations in a student’s life because it is the stage where adolescents respond more on their social needs and desires rather than their academic responsibilities.
Economic pressures come in if the student belongs in a family whose parents acquire resources that are only enough for their basic needs such as food and medicines. Education then is somehow not prioritized because of lack of financial resources. Hence, pressures arise when the student struggles for money and resources just to finish a project or to pay for tuition fees. He or she is then summoned to find ways and to become resourceful so that his or her study will not be compromised.
Pressures and demands on one’s self occur when the student requires himself or herself to finish schoolwork in order to attend a party or join drinking session with friends. It also transpires when he or she desires to meet the expectations of his or her parents. Hence, the parents’ expectations serve the purpose of pressuring and pushing the student to achieve that his or her parents want for him or her.
Basically, the pressures that every college student deals with have something to do with their tasks and responsibilities as a student. Those pressures center on cramming for exams, rushing to meet the deadlines, studying different subjects due to several exams on a particular day, desiring to achieve goals and dreams and responding to their social needs. Such pressures can never be removed from any college student; however there are ways on how to effectively manage pressure including time management, prioritization of things that have to be done in order to avoid procrastination and setting up of goals.
