For the majority of us, the doldrums of reading week and the anxiety of mid-term essay deadlines is a period that comes and then goes. It is a fleeting thing, a blink, a thin slice trimmed off the fat loaf of the year. But for an increasing number of students the despair that comes with all those assignments crammed together, like the congestion of the library itself, is on the rise.
Its causes are unpredictable, so it is important to look after yourself. This means taking regular exercise, eating healthily, and purging your life of unnecessary stresses. For example, I recently got rid of my email alerts from Amnesty calling for donations for starving refugees. It had really started to bum me out.
Yet the college has an undeniable role in this cloud of depressions’ prevalence over students’ lives. A cursory glance around the place can confirm this. While the highest peak of Belfield can easily be pointed out, the candidates for lowest trough are too dark and numerous to attract a proper evaluation.
While resources are available on campus to assist students that are struggling, it is difficult to tell whether or not they are effective. Surely the daily sight of the college President and Registrar playing piano by the lake in a last-ditch effort to cheer people up does not bode well for progress (Not to say that their playing is not good). One fears for the morale of students heading into the coming of exam season.
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Karl O’Reilly | Turbine Editor
