The college existential crisis

As one student flipped through a textbook in the library, her face was equal parts scorn, venom and dread. She let out an exasperated sigh and buried her face in her hands. It’s a typical sight as the semester matures, as classes are delving deeper into substantive material. Many of us have already experienced our first exams of Fall. As we inch closer to midterms, some UF students may be thinking the same thing to themselves: Can I handle this?

You might find yourself studying in the library realizing that your last-minute cramming can’t save you from the sting of an impending quiz. At first, only the upcoming exam concerns you. But if you can’t handle the quiz, how will you handle the midterm? The final? How are you going to apply the concepts in “the real world”? Are you really ready to go through with this? Are you ready to make this your lifelong career? The stages of existential dread parade over you.

Those fears can creep up on you quickly. One minute you’re sitting in lecture and imagining yourself as a future marketing major. You dream of putting Nestle and Nabisco products on shelves in the most scientific way possible. Formulating special pricing during Halloween to maximize profits. Determining which fall colors will make people hungriest. But the next minute, you are inundated with business finance material that is too dense and too complicated to understand, along with textbooks with indecipherable graphs and unintelligible paragraphs of mathematical jargon. The marketing dream is eclipsed by a mountain of numbers, formulas, memorization and exams. It can look hopeless when you see red marks covering returned quizzes and homework.

Take a deep breath. You are not in over your head. Your classmates probably aren’t breezing through the material either. If you would like to, see an academic adviser to orient yourself with the resources you’ll need to succeed or consider taking a lighter course load. Advisers can help you take concrete steps to get your legs back under you. Once you start studying more effectively, you will do better in class. Trust us, you’re not doomed. You’re not so bad at math, history or anything else that you can’t pass this course. You just need to master the material.

A helpful tactic to avoid existential crises is to stay grounded and avoid procrastination. Yes, we know this is not new advice. Yes, this is exactly what you’ve been told your entire academic career. Yes, it is still the best thing you can do to save yourself from a breakdown. It’s a simple concept: The more you study and the more practice you get, the better you’ll do. If your anxiety only happens in fits and starts just before exams or big projects, you may want to consider better time management. Take comfort in at least knowing what you want, despite having a tough time getting there. It could be worse. The much harder situation is the opposite.

Your existential crisis might not be driven by fear of failing. You could find yourself bored with your schoolwork — what your major has to offer just doesn’t interest you. That is not so easily fixed. You’ll have to do some critical thinking, and you may realize you’ve been idling down the wrong road for too long, doing what everyone said you should do instead of what you wanted to do. Academic advisers can tell you what UF offers, but they can’t tell you where you will individually find fulfillment.

Keep in mind UF has resources if you feel overwhelmed, such as U Matter, We Care. You should contact them at umatter@ufl.edu if your burden is becoming too heavy to bear. It’s a good way to get started on alleviating that mounting pressure, and they can help with academics, mental health or just a lack of motivation. They can help you see the payoff of that business finance class and bring your candy marketing dreams back to life.