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Letter to the Editor: The Paradox of College

Courtesy Katie Hahn Now a junior, Ava Smith sits in her dorm taking classes over the internet during the height of the pandemic restrictions in the spring semester of 2021. Akonsha Das Red & Black Managing Editor

College is one of the most paradoxical experiences of life. A juxtaposition of intense responsibility and pressure and at the same time – one of the most carefree times of our life. A time we enter as children and leave as adults by legal definitions. A reality where academics and amusement, friends and competition cohabitate. A period where intense personal growth and professional/academic maturity is expected alongside complete social immaturity. As someone who started college in the chaos of 2020 and is continuing throughout the pandemic, I can tell you it is as exhilarating as it is exhausting.

The romanticization of college most certainly has some merit. Nights of spontaneous roommate discussions, impromptu day trips through fields retreating from the colorful sunset, escaping finals stress with group scream sessions and the magical escapism parks provide. Or for others “moving away from home for the first time, swilling booze at a house party, touring houses during sorority rush, applying face paint for a football game, decorating the cold, cinder-block walls of a new dorm room” as Atlantic Writer Ian Bogost mentions.

But this illusion ignores the mental health struggles that so many students endure and that COVID-19 has only exacerbated.

Editorial PoliCy

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