As of this moment, I’m feeling very stressed. Don’t get me wrong I almost always have a
base level of anxiety which never really goes away, but at this particular moment, I’m feeling
stressed.
Midterms are upon us and those are certainly a source of stress for a lot of us. However
outside of the classes which I catch myself debating skipping far too often, I also work as an
intern for a nonprofit corporation in center city. In addition to this I’m the Director of Academics for my fraternity and the Director of Recruitment for PRSSA.
My situation isn’t unique in any way and there’s certainly students out there with even
more on their plate than I have. Regardless of this it’s okay to say I’m stressed and not feel like I’m comparing myself to someone who’s more stressed or doing more activities than I am. We all deserve to give ourselves the simple respect of admitting strain under pressure.
My week starts Monday morning at 5:30 A.M. when my phone’s alarm goes off and
wakes me up with a harp melody which has long since lost its soothing appeal. I swing my legs out of the bed and stand up, listening to what seems like every single bone in my body crack.
After a quick cup of coffee, I force myself to the gym with one of my fraternity brothers. I have
breakfast afterwards then leave for work around 7:30 A.M. I work until around 2 P.M. then I
come back to campus to attend classes from 3 to 8 P.M. Following my evening classes on
Mondays and Tuesdays I have fraternity related activities. Thursdays I usually sleep in until
around 10 A.M. then start homework before going to classes at 3 P.M. and then attending
fraternity events in the evening. Needless to say, I’m starting to feel a little burnt out.
It can be very difficult to find an outlet which is effectively destresses you. My best
recommendation is to go for something creative. Music became a large facet of my life in middle school, around the same time I was in choir and musicals. Catching beats and matching the tempo of songs had always come naturally to me. I started taking hip hop dance lessons in high school, which eventually led to me joining a dance team at Temple my first semester sophomore year.
The environment the team provided was exactly what I needed at that time. The culture
revolved around supporting one another and success of the group. It gave me something to look forward to at the end of the day.
My creative outlets have shifted over time but maintained the focus on music. I’m no
longer part of the dance team, but I picked up a new hobby along the way: DJing. I know how
cliché that sounds but don’t get it twisted, I’m not aiming to be next up or anything like that. I
started doing it because the idea of mixing and creating original music sounded appealing to me.
I bought my soundboard this previous summer and within two weeks I had all the
controls down. No matter how many people I may eventually perform for, my favorite place to
mix music will always be in the basement of my family’s home in Maryland, by myself. I’m able to lose myself in this creative pursuit and forget about the stress I have from other parts of my life.
Stress is an unavoidable aspect of life. The best option is to confront it creatively, so the
internal pressure doesn’t build up. Music allows me to jump around, sing along to my favorite
songs, and forget the clouds in my clear blue sky. What helps you ensure a clear forecast?
This blog post was written by Park Sehgal, Director of Recruitment.