With the first few weeks of a semester come the inevitable stresses of getting back into the groove of things or maybe trying to find your place as a new student. As college students, we often delve right into things that excite us and find that we are in way over our heads. Yet somehow we always find a way to fight these obstacles and make it out alive on the other end.

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One thing that many of us don’t step back and realize is that so many other people around us are most likely going through similar situations. Reaching out to these people for support or even just for someone to relate to is often much easier than we anticipate. We also tend to forget that what we’re actually here for is to get an education, while everything else comes second. If we focus mainly on that, we can let everything else fall into place on its own, whether it is a good social life, a relationship, or trying to get everything situated.

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Behrend students are fortunate enough to have the free Personal Counseling office right on campus. As expected, the office sees an influx of students within the first few weeks of a new semester. Professionals in the counseling office encourage students to reach out and ask for help as they adjust to new stressors and changes that come along with everything that college has to offer.

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Susan Daley, Staff Psychologist at the Personal Counseling office, advises students to “take care and take it easy.” She adds in, “We are all working to adjust to our new normal around here.” Daley suggests that students should reach out to friends and other students to see that they are not alone. She also says to reassure yourself if you are stressing by saying, “I don’t know how long I will feel this way, but I am going to take good care of myself while I get through this.”

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The Personal Counseling website has an entire section devoted to back to school transitions that teach students how to deal with everything from finding balance to sticking to a healthy routine.

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Aside from stresses directly related to school, we all will likely face unexpected life challenges along the road that we must deal with while still trying to keep our A game up in course work. One key factor to remember is that our situations are often not as bad as we might think. It’s important to take a deep breath and think to yourself if the situation is really worth all of the trouble. Half of the time, you’ll find that it won’t matter in a few weeks or even a few days.

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Anthony Ventura, Senior Political Science major, can speak directly from experience. While going through an emotional and difficult break up, he made a huge transition in deciding to move from Florida to Behrend for his last two years in school. He was going through two of the biggest changes in his life concurrently, causing what could be seen as an overwhelming amount of stress. After learning to grow as a person from the experience, he states, “For anybody who ever has a time where you’re taking a huge step like that in transitioning, you can’t shelter yourself from everything.” He adds that you really have to take a deep breath and plunge yourself into as much as you can in your environment while still being able to balance life. “That’s when you’ll find the places you fit and then it’ll make up for the bad things that have happened before or the stress that you’re going through,” Ventura assures.

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Especially in college, it’s best to set some time aside to have fun and do what you love so that you don’t let everything build up until it cracks you. When you focus on what is most important in life and let everything else settle, it often figures itself out on its own terms. A lot of what you go through is out of your hands. It’s important to let it be and not get too hung up.