Graphic: Angelo B. Pocong
TRICIA DOMINIQUE VERZOSA, THE SCOOP PUBLICATION
Posted at September 17, 2021, 6:30PM
College in the middle of a pandemic can be mentally and emotionally exhausting. College is commonly a time for many students to experience the first stages of adulthood - learning to balance schoolwork, personal responsibilities at home and perhaps, even working for jobs, all at the same time, while adapting to the new mode of learning. Doing all of this with the ongoing pandemic have taken quite the toll for college students to experience academic burnout.
The pandemic had caused drastic change on how students think and feel about the purpose of learning in this kind of situation. With modular or online learning, it seems that students are required with more amount of schoolwork compared to face-to-face classes, needing to comply them on weekly deadlines.
Photo: Catherine Anne C. Reyes
Although, there are students who could manage multiple courses works within a given time, there are still those who struggle on a daily basis in keeping up with the amount of workloads. This may be because of having equal amount of personal responsibilities at home and work. There are also those students who hardly have the privilege of acquiring good internet connection.
Photo: Catherine Anne C. Reyes
It is no surprise that there are such days when students are bound to succumb to pressure, burdened with the thought to manage individual priorities while dedicating sufficient time for online learning, may it be synchronous or asynchronous classes. Thus, these factors, altogether, lead to academic burnout for college students along the school year.
As a college student myself, I cannot deny that I also have times of academic burnout. There are several times when I find myself being overwhelmed with the amount of workloads given from every subject, at the same time, doing my responsibilities at home. It can be quite challenging to keep myself consistently motivated and I could not imagine how harder the situation is for working students.
Online learning is especially hard when I have to get up and face at the screen first thing in the morning. This can be mentally draining because of the new mode of learning – everything is done through a screen - and emotionally frustrating when the internet is not stable. This became a repeated routine in my daily life and doing this repeatedly had lead me to experience what it is like to be academically burned out.
Photo: Catherine Anne C. Reyes
However, there is one thing that I have realized in spite of it all. College students like myself should not degrade themselves when they feel worn out and overwhelmed with pressure. Being on a slump and being academically burned out are two different things. It is normal to feel exhaustion especially when we are handling the situation in the midst of a crisis where we not only have to manage course works alone but the responsibilities we have at home or even in our jobs. We cannot avoid the feeling of academic burnout especially when this is already the second year of the new normal learning.
Photo: Catherine Anne C. Reyes
It may be a lot harder to stay consistent and inspired. However, diverting ourselves away from the screen from time to time, or perhaps, taking a little nap during the day could help us students take a little break. Resting, by keeping our minds and bodies in shape, is as valuable as our obligations in school since it is also part of the whole process of pushing through and moving forward as we face the COVID-19 pandemic.
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