Personal Reflective Essay

Many people especially those in high school usually imagine that college life is stress-free and full of fun. According to them, college students can do anything they feel like without any deterrence. What they need to understand is that there are at least four types of pressures that people experience while in college what makes the lives of most student a living hell. They include parental pressure, self-induced pressure, economic pressure and peer pressure. Every student must experience at least one of these demands before graduating from college. Immediately an individual joins a university, the thought of leading a stress-free life full of fun fades away as they begin to face reality.

As the first child in the family, my parents, as well as my siblings, have high expectation from me. I should be the role model to my younger siblings by excelling in academic. Being from a low-income family, it makes me sad seeing my parents struggle to offer us a good life. Despite our social status, father and mother try their best to ensure we lack nothing both at school and at home. Following the high expectations they have for my academic career, my parents always lecture me on why they work extra hard. They usually narrate to me hardship they went through while they were young without access to proper education. Their stories were touching, and I would always shade tears whenever they narrate them. Through their hard work, they could afford to pay my tuition fees as well as my upkeep in college and the relieved me from economic pressure. In this case, I had to deal with two significant demand s that include parental and self-induced pressure. I had to overcome all these by setting my priorities in life. First was to work extra hard to excel in my academics hence makes my parents proud as well as be a role model to my siblings. While doing that, focusing on every single detail that can help me achieve my daily goals was also my priority.

Immediately I joined the college; I first had to deal with the self-induced pressure that is usually mentally and physically exhausting. I was struggling to be perfect in everything I do and at the same time fear to be the last in class. Striving to please everyone both students and tutors what I found to be very hard. My worries even increased whenever I thought about my academic performance as well as how my future will be after college. My frustrations and disappointments ever came when I failed to achieve my set goals. I frequently felt nervous following how I usually regard myself of high standards. In most cases, I used to lose hope following the disappointments and lose focus on what I need to work on next. It was tough to deal with frustrations every single day, so I had to come up with a way of handling these challenges. I wanted to lead a healthy life like my fellow students and to overcome all the problems I had to prepare a list of my daily goals. I thought that the failings should never interfere with my confidence in all I do.

I decided to set my priorities to enable me to arrange enough time for the most important things and take small steps to achieve my objectives. From all the frustrations and disappointments I went through when I joined college, I realise that one can never meet all the goals an individual wants in life at once. I thought of following a proper channel by prioritising from the most important to the least issue. Keeping your objective simple and focus on one or two critical aspects to avoid disappointments was the best solution I could think. From my experience, I found it necessary to relax and avoid being stressed especially, students. It is tough to achieve anything under pressure since you will always want to please everyone in life something that is impossible. No one knows what the future holds for him/her and people are likely to experience the unexpected in life. Therefore, it is necessary to do things step by step to avoid any frustration that might come.

Other than self-induced stress, I also had to deal with parental pressure. My parents have always had high hopes for me since I was a kid and usually expect me to top in my class at all levels. After finishing high school, they promised to give me everything I want if I continue leading in my category in college. In case of any decline, I would have to look for a part-time job for my upkeep. The issue of working while going to school is usually cumbersome, and that threat of fetching for myself made me work even harder than ever. To retain my top position at the college level, I had to get all As what was very difficult. I had to spend all my time in the books without any single time relaxing with my peers what I found stressful most of the time. I came to realise that parental pressure was the worst experience since I had no freedom like other students. Even though they wanted a better life for me, it never comes by being at the top of the class in every test. My father wanted me to become the best engineer a dream he once had but wants to fulfil it through me. Me on the other hand, I had no interest in that profession, so I had to excel just to impress him. My academic success was all my parents wanted and to avoid their daily pressure; I had to work hard in class and get As in all subjects hence tops in my category. My parents believe that inadequate education has made them struggle all their life and therefore wants their children to get the best education for a brighter future. I had to avoid peer groups at college and ensure that my social circle is as small as possible to get enough time to concentrate on my studies hence better performance. By doing so, I have always remained at the top of my class since I joined college.

So far, I have managed to overcome parental and self-induced pressure by doing what is right to avoid frustrations in life hence better performance. I have come to know that for one to achieve all the set goals quickly, he/she has to do one thing at a time. Struggling with everything will just add disappointments to your life and comes with no achievements. Making little steps towards my objectives have helped me overcome self-induced pressure. Having a small social circle with fewer engagements in peer groups has always help me avoid parental pressure by topping my class in all tests. In as much as college pressure may prove to be stressful, students must find ways of overcoming them. So long as one knows how to manage stress, it is nothing to worry.