If you’ve made it this far, then it’s about the time you should begin preregistering for classes. There’s probably a little knot in your stomach that’s telling you that you have to get into a certain class. That it’s now or never, and there’s no room for mistake or messing up.

There’s your first mistake right there: thinking you can’t make a mistake.

There are plenty and by plenty I mean a TON of college students that entered school thinking they wanted to study one thing (signed up for all appropriate classes, prepared to get the best grades in said classes, etc.), only to find their passions lie in a completely different field.

With that being said, don’t freak out over classes too much. There’s a good chance that the classes you take first semester won’t matter much in terms of declaring your major. Also, shopping week is available so you can always drop a class you realize it wasn’t for you in the first place. So don’t stress out.

Speaking of how demanding college courses and academics can be, let’s talk about something that everyone is going to experience one way or another: Stress.

Stress is that thing that makes you want to shut out the world while simultaneously keeping one foot in the race. It’s something that we as a culture have become conditioned to accept. Life is filled with struggles and terrible problems, we can’t change this. But what can be changed is how we react and handle the issues that we are confronted with.

One thing that I was surprised about upon my arrival to Bryn Mawr was the level of attention that is brought to mental, emotional and physical health. One class in particular that stood out to me was Thrive, a required course during your first semester. Thrive provided an opportunity for myself and my peers to voice our strengths, struggles, and other vulnerabilities; something that I had never experienced before in an academic setting. No, not every session is going to be sweet and warm, sometimes you won’t feel like talking about your feelings or what’s been bothering you, and that’s okay.

It’s okay to not be okay and want to take time to focus on yourself.

Let’s be real: Sometimes, you’ve got to watch that feel-good movie instead of studying for that exam. Sometimes, you’ve got to put your emotional and internal well-being before the stressful demands of the outside world.

What? But how will that affect my future job and career goals? If I’m not studying then I’ll fail my classes, if I fail my classes I’ll get kicked out of school, If I get kicked out of school I’ll become a bum with terrible career prospects that lives at their moms house and takes care of her cats for the rest of their life.

Well, all of those things are possible regardless of whether you flunk out of school or not. Heck, aliens could land on Earth tomorrow, abduct you, thus preventing you from showing up to school and if you don’t come to school, then you fail by default. *shrugs*

Anyway, here are some facts about stress:

• Stress has been scientifically proven to worsen both mental, emotional and physical health if it is experienced too often

• Headaches, heart disease, high blood pressure, heightened depression and anxiety are all common for those experiencing stress on the regular.

• It’s not fun.

Here are some facts about self care:

• Self Care helps you focus your values

• Allows you to take time out of your daily routine to focus on yourself, what matters, and put things into perspective.
• Ironically, the less you worry about the things, the easier it is to deal with them and do your best because your psyche isn’t clouded by anxiety or depression.

• It’s fun and harmless.

Life is filled with problems that naturally put a strain on you, but what matters the most is how you choose to deal with and recover from those issues.