For this assignment, I decided when talking to my friends to pose a simple question to them, “what do you think is the biggest detriment to your mental health on campus and why?” 

Most of the people I spoke with said that it was the workload for their classes that tended to get to them the most. My friend Katie talked about how all of her classes will give all of these tiny assignments until it just builds and builds and suddenly she finds herself under a mountain of work. “It gets to a point where the most minor thing will set you off”, she remarked while grimacing as my other friends seated around the table nodded along with her. 

The simplicity of some of their answers surprised me as well. One of my female friends simply said having an unreliable bus schedule is the biggest cause of mental stress for her. She commented on how never knowing when the bus is going to come especially in the morning stresses her out because if she isn’t there when the bus leaves she’ll miss her class. “It’s tough.” she said while biting into her bagel smeared with cream cheese, “I have to get up at six in the morning just to be sure I can get to a stop before the bus leaves.” 

My roommates’ response to this question was closer to what I thought most of the other responses would be. She mentioned how change is difficult for her. “I like my routines.” She said, “I get used to doing things a certain way and when that changes it’s tough for me to adjust.” She also talked about how she’s so used to having her pets with her at home that being away from them is also hard because of how much she misses them. 

Despite most of what my friends said resonating with me, I didn’t get the one response I was expecting the most which was: social media and spending too much time on the phone. Perhaps this was the main response I was expecting because it’s what I feel affects me the most. I limit a lot of my time on social media because it pulls me away from my work and makes me feel insecure as I compare myself to the filtered images I see on the screen in front of me. This assignment really made me realize how different things stress different people out in different ways. I never stress about missing the buses and perhaps my friend doesn’t worry about spending too much time on her phone. It can be hard to step outside of yourself and see that not everyone is worried about the same things that you are. I’m glad that I had this opportunity to sit and talk with my friends. It helped to remind me that everyone goes through different stresses and anxieties. The person next to you may be dealing with something completely different than you are.