Aunt Izzie: Staying Stressfree
Dear Aunt Izzie,
We’re not even a month into the semester and I already have too much on my plate. What can I do to avoid getting overwhelmed?
Sincerely,
Stress in Excess
Dear Stress in Excess,
Most people would tell you to give something up, because you’re trying to do too much. I think those people are babies.
It’s much more likely that you are (pardon my language) bad at time management. Juggling a social life, school, and some sort of job or extracurricular activity becomes complicated when you add in factors like YouTube and Facebook and whatever hip websites kids use these days. Tumblr? Is that still a thing?
While college is arguably more like the real world than high school it’s still a fairly carefree environment. You don’t have a mortgage or a job from 9 to 5 that slowly sucks the life out of you. You do however have lots of opportunities to try cool things and meet cool people.
The trick is to discern the exciting opportunities from the ones you can put on hold until you’ve finished that essay. Generally the ones that can wait are the ones that aren’t timely. Yeah, there is a new episode of The Vampire Diaries online, but it will be also be there tomorrow. And even the day after tomorrow!
If you’re feeling stretched too thin think back on how you spent your day. Are you taking on too much or do you just work too little? I can tell you from personal experience that a panic attack comes on really easy when you spent two hours on a Sunday watching Beyoncé music videos instead of doing your bio readings.
Stressed in Excess, I don’t know you. Maybe you work two jobs and take six classes and are a member of at least three clubs, plus you have a million friends who all want you to spend time with them every day. But it’s far more likely that you have one job, take four classes, are in one club, have a reasonable number of friends, and spend an unreasonable amount of time either on the Internet or some other procrastination device. Curse the inventor of Temple Run 2.
Stop browsing through Amazon, quit obsessively checking Twitter, and for the love of God don’t watch another episode of whatever Netflix series you’re engrossed in.
Sincerely,
Aunt Izzie
![Headshot[1]](https://gettysburgian.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Headshot11.png)
Izzie Gibson Penrose, class of 2016, has 18 years of advice to give. She loves telling people what to do (but doesn’t take offense if they don’t listen) and lives as strange a life as possible so she has plenty of anecdotes to share. Izzie also enjoys making jokes and baking cupcakes. Email her with questions, concerns, or anything LITERALLY ANYTHING that’s on your mind at gibsis01@gettysburg.edu. She promises to read every email she receives at least once, probably six times.
