The Most Stressful Time Of A Graduate Program

The last semester was a very challenging semester for me emotionally, physically, and mentally. I had recently had a change in my relationship status and was left alone to pay all the bills. The full-time schedule made it difficult for me to pick up hours at work. Being a single mother of three children, this had devastating consequences on my family financially. By mid-semester I was forced to work third shift and weekends to try to compensate for the wages I was losing. This dramatically

My journey through undergrad was similar to a flight going through a lot of turbulence. I came in knowing what I had to do, make Good grades, shadow doctors, and volunteer/participate in community service. However, there were a lot of trials and tribulations. It was not until after my freshman year when I hit rock bottom academically that my whole world

Here at Greenbrier High School, we have over 1500 students. Out of those 1500, many of us are in challenging and rigorous classes while also participating in extracurricular activities. Many are able to have outstanding grades, while also being active in their school and community. The stressful situations we experience, or adversity, heightens our ability to do well under stress and continue to stay determined. Personally, when I have a large amount of homework or am under a great deal of stress it makes me more determined on performing my best. Without the pressure from my classes, I may not have been able to maintain my high average. From my experiences with adversity, it proves to have a beneficial effect on the way I handle demanding

I hadn't taken my counselor's heed of organizing more in ODL than I had in public school or my parent's hesitation over the fact that I had so many credits (17), without knowing how difficult ODL would be. Instead, I had brushed them off, believing myself to be smarter and more organized, but I was wrong. I thought and thought I could get good grades, but I wasn't actually doing things that would get good grades such as writing in my planner, not procrastinating, and balancing my time better. In short, I was spending more time believing in myself than actually putting in the time and focusing on my school work. It was a disaster and by the time midterms came around, I was completely stressed. My grades were okay, but nothing like I wanted them to be. I was also tired of producing terrible work in a frantic, rushed manner from procrastinating so

Furthermore, one of my most challenging experiences was maintaining a 3.0+ GPA in school while attending Oakland Community College in the Dual Enrollment Program. It was a tough situation to be in, due to the excessive amount of work I had to do for both high school and college. Every week I had to complete a chapter of my book, which consisted of long sections using words that I have never even heard of in my life, the prolonged chapters were followed by a required one to two-page essay that was due the next week or else it was considered late. Now keep in mind that these essays were a huge part of my overall grade, so I am embarrassed to say that out of the ten chapters, about four or five of them were late, but the reason for that is because

First of all, I did not understood English very well, and second, I discovered that I was going to graduate two years later than what I thought; I became a sophomore instead of a senior, and I did not like that. I can still hear on my mind the bad comments that some important people from school told me about my capabilities, without knowing how hard-worker and determined I was going to be. About two weeks after I started my first semester, I realized that my English was good, and having that on mind, I decided to do my best to graduate in one

In the Fall quarter of 2014 at pierce I was still being introduced to this style of learning and the school setting of Pierce College which was a pretty big turnaround for me seeing as my only previous schooling had been public high school. Along with my unfamiliarness with my academic surroundings I was also beginning my first job and had weekly meetings with a counselor.Needless to say, i put too much on my own plate and wasn't able to keep up with it as much as i had hoped to. I had been visiting a counselor to get help on some issues i had been facing with an Anxiety disorder along with issues in my home life ,which had been keeping me from focusing on many tasks. The anxiety was a major issue for me during fall and winter quarter but has since then improved and taken a back seat and is much less of an issue now. I know that none of these are an excuse for my poor grades but it was a heavy influence on how i handled

Being a senior I had already expected that life won’t go that easy. Throughout my Junior year I was being prepared through my AVID class and from all the different articles, and activities we did in class. Kind of reality hasn’t hit me yet, I was making a huge list that marks all I wanted to accomplish in my senior year. But there is this thing called ‘stress’ that is invented and it began to slowly eating my brain away. Just a little stressed what I tell everyone who ask how am I doing. Stress is something we all need to be prepared for in our early stages in life but we can’t help it due to many trials and tribulations that come in our everyday life. For high school seniors like me some of them already developed this disease called, ‘senioritis’ if you haven’t known yet it's a disease that affects your mind, and body from being able to function properly due to the amount loads of work that you have to do. Well if you have good time

As a Richland Collegiate High School student, I am always attacked by stressors in my academic life. The stress provoked by school-related objects often bled into my home and social life. It created an unhealthy environment where I felt weighed down by the stress. Due to the stress, I often lost my appetite and started sleeping less. My mother worried that I was depressed or that I was developing an eating disorder, but I just did not know how to pick myself up and just get things done. I lacked motivation, self-control, and a healthy balance of work and relaxation. Throughout the course, I have been picking up on some of the strategies I can use to help alleviate my stress and subsequently improve other aspects of my life.

A particular stressful situation that occurred within the last year was my unrealistic goal to become Personal Trainer certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) in three-months (over the summer). What made this goal difficult was the fact that it took me a long time each day to finally sit down before my book to study, there were days I had to take care of my grandma in place of her other caregiver, spending too much time at the gym, wasting time on the computer, wasting time on my phone and on social media, and consecutive days where I pushed studying off. All of these points really made focusing on studying hard. Each day my intentions were to get to work and work hard, but just the thought of being in the action of studying repelled me from sitting down and doing so. In all honesty, some days were easier than others, but the majority weren’t as so. To add to all of this, I had the pressure of the promise I’d made to so many people of being certified before starting this last semester of college. Given this goal I had for myself, and knowing that getting focused on the work each day wouldn’t be easy, I had a select few hold me accountable for getting my studying done. The support systems I had in place were my mom, girlfriend at the time, and my dentist, who I was training at night, five-days a week. My mom was definitely the one who was on my case the most about how much I’d gotten done each day—she’d ask every day after work. She was

In Seventh grade, I was starting a new high school and was able to be carefree. I was able to slack off and get away with it. During my Seventh grade year, I was a happy. I was able to strive for straight A’s and still be stress free. I made new friends that understood me and I kept my friends close by. It was satisfying to know the environment around me and know my surroundings. As the years went by, I still continued to take the easy path. I wanted an easygoing school year where I didn’t have stress on my plate. Now, in my junior year of highschool, I have a bunch load of work and stress. Since I had reached high school, I needed more of a challenge. I needed something that would allow me to improve myself and become better. My parents had always told me that education was the key to a happy life. Receiving good grades and doing well would bring me happiness in the future. I had strived to become better and going through the many challenges that appeared was one of the obstacles that I had to

In “High School Students are Stressed Out About College Admissions; The Reality of Burning Out Before College,” Olsen (2015) discusses about how on-coming college students experience stress prior to college, and the means to be the best at everything so that colleges accept

The role strain that I have is not as difficult as most. I have set the goal of working hard in all my subjects to obtain the highest grade that I can. This goal is not just for me, but for my husband as well. Currently I am unemployed and searching for employment. Because I have no job position, I am expected to achieve at the highest level possible or face informal negative sanctions (McIntyre 105). The pressure I place on myself to try and get the highest grade possible cause forms of writer’s block and performance anxiety that I must overcome or disappoint others. While I do want to get my degree for myself first, I know that I am also going to school for several other individuals. That kind of pressure becomes mind numbing at times and I find it difficult to think. Showing my difficulties is a sign of weakness and I cannot just say that I am stress because I do not work like other adult students. At times I sit and stare at my computer screen hoping that the thoughts will come to me in a fast manner so that I can finish my assignments. This approach does not work all the

I was so focused in trying to help my family financially that I did not realize how it was effecting my academics, until my junior year. During my second semester of junior year my overall GPA dropped, bring my anxiety back and turning the tables to me being stressed out. Although my GPA went down I believe that I am just as educated as one of my peers in the same class, I simply did not have the time to sit and memorize what was going to be on the test, causing me to blank out and get low test scores. However, I have requested shorter hours at work to give me time to study and do homework, and i'm confident that my GPA will go up due to the fact that school is my number one priority

Now that I have completed Pathways to lifelong learning, I have come to realize that the extreme stress I endured as mentioned earlier was due to my poor time management skills as well as my poor stress management. I found that I was often leaving assignments to the last minute, the amount of times which I went to the gym decreased from most days of the week to about twice a week or less, I no longer was eating healthy and I did not give myself the free time which was needed. I now recognize that my mental health