Too Much Pressure College Students As Adults

By: Mary Mathieu Editor-In-Chief

“You are adults now,” says every college professor ever. Oh, the pressure of this adult life, at least the adult life that we are expected to now be living as college students.

“Do your homework,” our parents and teachers still demand in our ears whenever we choose to listen to them. We are rebellious kids, after all, or as they now say, adults. Should homework even be on our agenda then if we are adults because is homework not something that kids do? Are we not still in school or is this all just a dream or even a nightmare for that matter?

Oh, the innocence of childhood or adulthood as they like to call it. It is a never-ending war—whether we college students are kids or adults.

Where does this leave us you might ask? More confused than ever, that is for sure. Oh, and what about our identity? Does it even exist anymore?

Quite frankly, no, because we are supposed to have it all figured out by now, right, at least that is what is expected of us from our fellow adults. We are expected to not change our minds because adults are supposed to have it all together, are they not? Well, I will tell you what—we college students think all of this adult talk is a joke because we are hardly out of high school and are still finding our way in this life. We barely know who we are as individuals and need your support more than ever in these vital developmental years of our life. Yet, we are adults and are supposed to have our life together as our fellow adults expect. Do you see a flaw in this argument yet? You probably do not so welcome to part two of my written Ted Talk.

College students do stupid things, right? We kids are not afraid to admit it because we know it is true. We try to control our impulses but sometimes we just are not able to. As much as professors and the other adults in our life hate to think about it, we “adults” like to have fun by doing stupid things. Ever hear of the prefrontal cortex of the brain? It is responsible for impulse control and emotional regulation. Adults would know this, right? Kids would probably know this too as we are learning about it in our psychology courses. The funny thing though is that the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until one is 25. We college kids are adults though, right?

Sometimes, on those rare occasions, we college kids are more mature than the adults in our life because we can recognize that we are just kids. Adults claim to have it all together and appear as such but in reality, they are afraid to admit that they are in an identity crisis. They project their problems onto us college kids by expecting us to be adults like them and so we are.

I am tired. As a college kid, I am so sick of hearing the phrase “You are an adult now.” If you cannot resist using this phrase, please just reword it to provide me and many other college students with peace of mind. This new phrase might look like “You are expected to be an adult now.”

Let us be. We are still learning and growing and trying to figure out our way in this life. Let us be kids just for a little while longer because we have our entire lives to be adults. Just let us be.

Why are you rushing us to grow up so quickly? If you are parents, do you not want your kids to stay little forever so you can cherish the good times you have left with them? Let your students do the same. There is no difference.

Let us college kids enjoy the rest of our childhoods in peace. Stop with your expectations. We are doing our best. Just let us live our lives at our own pace. We will be okay one day. For now, just help us along the way by walking with us through the darkness of the day.